Krait book 14a A Quiet Year at Prince Peak
by slytherinsal
Summary: Where Severus and Krait are concerned, of course, a quiet year is a relative matter! Especially when Severus plots to do a chant to free all the House Elves in Europe from self punishment compulsions, and the fey get bolshie about it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Severus was listening to the Wizarding Wireless because there was to be a program featuring the Broomstick Boys talking about what they had gained in their year studying post NEWT studies at Prince Peak. Crys and Nils had been harder workers than Severus had expected; and he wanted to hear what they said.

Nils Tenor said, when asked,

"Well we weren't really there for our popular music; though of course studying music intensively we can't help but to have improved in our song crafting too. Also our voices have improved with the chanting training! It was an amazing experience, being with others of like mind, pushing the boundaries of what can be done with music in magic; and we are proud to be able to announce that our researches have helped towards a syllabus for a new OWL and possibly a NEWT in the subject. And working with such talented people as Godfrey Goodchild, Volodya Potishev, Seagh Snape and little Silvina Snape and all the other talented kids boosted us all because there was something we could each give, and so much to learn from each other even outside the directed study that Professor Snape put together for us" he laughed "And one problem we'd all been wrestling with, and were about to give up on at the end of term, and in blows Jade Snape with her son on her hip, listens to what we have to say, passed small Ralph to Crys, who sits there looking terrified; and Jade picks up a flute, blows a passage and says 'like that'; picks up her baby and blows out. It was an idea of Silvina's; a piece of music to protect against the Cruciatus Curse. Works too."

"You have tested it?" asked the interviewer.

"Yes; we had permission to use the cruciatus curse just to do so. It's going to work for labour pains too, so we're all getting together over the next few weeks to cut a record of it, to sell at cost price for those women who can't afford a midwife, and see about making sure that all communities have a gramophone that can be loaned out. And St Mungo's will be able to use it too."

"Well that's excellent!" said the interviewer "And you did too manage to write some popular works?"

"Yes" Crys answered "We have some music we've written for words from Mad Lockhart and Chad Fenwick; but we wrote a few of our own too."

"Yup!" agreed Nils "Hey, Sev, mate, if you're listening, now we're in England and you're in Austria so you can't poison us a little bit, here's our tribute to you" and he struck a chord on the guitar. He and Crys sang,

"_He is the Cauldron Master_

_With his stirrer hard and long_

_Brewing up a potion_

_He makes it hot and strong_

_He is the Cauldron Master_

_And all his pupils know _

_There's no-one brews it quite like him_

_A cup of hot cocoa!"_

Severus had listened to the beginning of this in horror and dismay; innuendo was all that was required to cause trouble for any schoolmaster. And then there was the last line and he laughed.

He was NOT in Austria as it happened but in London; and he listened to the rest of the interview, with tasters from upcoming new songs – the boys HAD improved no end – and apparated to the studio of the Wizarding Wireless to catch the pair coming out.

They pulled a face.

"Hi Sev" said Nils.

"Turn round the pair of you" said Severus. They turned and he clipped them both across the back of the head with two fingers.

They turned back laughing to embrace him warmly.

"He didn't like the song" laughed Crys.

"I worried about the thoughts of the parents" said Severus. "they – quite rightly – worry about the morals of their little flowers."

"Huh" said Nils "They don't need to; their delicate flowers are so delicate, not to say naïve, that I think they believe that even snogging is forbidden until they're over seventeen. VERY different to Hogwarts! Still, it was a relief, if also a bit of a shock, to be surrounded by teenage girls and NOT to have our clothes ripped off; as I recall the grand total of six queued for our autographs, and one of those only because she collects the autographs of the famous and told us politely that she'd never heard of us but that if Professor Snape rated us we must be worth collecting."

Severus groaned and laughed.

"I recognise Evadne Horrocks from THAT telling!" he said.

oOoOo

Severus was meeting Prudence Buffer and her parents for tea in town to follow up an impassioned owl delivered message from the girl asking to be permitted to take astronomy to NEWT under her own studies.

Prudence was no scholar as a general thing though she was a very competent potioneer – it was one of three subjects in which she had received 'O' grade at OWL. The rest were but 'A', barring one 'E' though she had no fails. However, she had studied Astronomy on her own time with aid from David Fraser and had done very well. In fact it was one of her 'O' grades. Apart from the fact that David had never himself taken the subject further than OWL, they were of course to be deprived of his presence this year since David had been named as successor by Albus Dumbledore and was thus taking over as Headmaster at Hogwarts with Albus having retired.

Prudence had both her parents in tow; her mother Severus recalled vaguely from Hogwarts as an approximate contemporary of his, a timid and much bullied Hufflepuff, who had left in a cloud of underachievement after OWLs – he had checked since, she had attained only five, though that meant nothing since the Weasley twins had no more and they were very successful indeed and had also managed a couple of NEWTs apiece – and she still treated him rather as though she was a twelve year old on the mat before him. Prudence's father was a Hellibore boy who was a solid 'A' student with a surprising flair for decorative woodwork who ran the cabinet making firm his father before him had set up, employing a large number of people under him including the muggle father of a Hogwarts student and a number of goblins with perfect amity in the workshop. Severus firmly shook hands.

"It will be harder than working with Professor Fraser, young Prudence" he said. "I can give you some tutorials; and I can let you have the use of my magical orrery. What else are you taking? Potions I assume and Divination?"

"Yes sir; and I thought as I got an 'E' in Care of Domestic Beasts I might take that as well; I might as well go for four."

"She's very clever, er, Severus" said Madam Buffer.

"More important she's a good hard worker" said Severus as Pru squirmed, knowing herself not to be clever by the standards of many at her school. "I have no doubt you'd have got plenty of OWLs and a sufficiency of NEWTs if we'd had a bit less friction in the school in our time, Pippa. The legacy of Tom Riddle is a couple of generations of damaged people and those who could have done better; you've raised an excellent daughter who is prepared to stand behind those who fight dark wizards and you should be as proud of her for that as for her academic achievements."

"It's partly to spite my Aunt Aggie" said Pippa honestly "She's always been so disparaging."

"And she only has two NEWTs" said Pru.

"Do NOT overreach yourself just to outdo her, young lady" said Severus "I shall be watching you; and if I feel you've bitten off more than you can chew I'll let you know in no uncertain terms; and insist you drop a subject. I think you can achieve an 'O' in both Potions and Divination, all being equal, if you put in the time; if doing four subjects brings down your performance I shall tell you so. Better to be outstanding at a few than mediocre at many, hmmm?"

"Well if I can GET 'O' in two it's still better than Great Aunt Aggie" said Prudence "But I would like to follow up what I'm interested in. And if I have to drop one, it would be care of beasts if you'll let me take Astronomy."

"I should like you to follow up what seems to be a subject you have a talent for" said Severus "You did better than David Fraser, as it happens – he was also studying Astronomy part time at Hogwarts – because he got an 'E' at OWL. I never took it to NEWT either; I found the study useful for its applications to Potioneering, but I tend to put in what astronomy a potioneer needs into the lessons and recommend good almanacs, which for most potioneers is more than sufficient. As you take Divination too that puts a different slant on it. And if you DO do well, I shall be looking to consider you as a possible future professor in the subject, though you may want to put in a year or two working away from school first."

"Gosh sir! That's awfully nice of you!" said Prudence. "I say, being Professor Buffer would probably give Great Aunt Aggie an apoplexy!"

"That ISN'T nice, poppet" laughed her father.

"Oh sometimes not being nice is awfully comforting when you have someone on your back" said Severus. "At least my dear this Great Aunt of yours isn't your parent or guardian."

"No; and what a relief THAT is!" said Pru. "She reared mummy because of deatheaters killing my grandparents!"

It took a few days for Pru to recall that statement and with Professor Snape's obvious understanding to suddenly wonder if he had been ridden by HIS parent or guardian; which when she discussed such a thought with her mother had Pippa exclaiming that it would explain why he had been such a solitary and snippy little boy and if only she had shared with him that being reared by Auntie Aggie was just as bad as his experience they might have been friends

And Prudence was happy because whilst he might have been a snippy little boy and a very stern headmaster, Professor Snape was ready to be flexible if you would meet him half way and promise to work hard! He had moreover asked her to help out a new girl who would be joining the sixth from Durmstrang. She was a girl called Frieda whose surname Pru could scarcely pronounce let alone remember, who had been brain damaged at birth because she stopped breathing while she was being born. Apparently she had, with help, struggled through four of whatever the Germans called OWLs. Frieda was to come to Prince Peak on the recommendation of Jade Snape – or rather Von Luytens as she now was – to be under the care of the small lower sixth class in the hope of getting one or two NEWTs and perhaps another OWL or two. Well Milos Milic in their form would be helpful; he had defected from Durmstrang, but how amazing it was that Professor Snape thought that the Headmistress of Durmstrang actually cared about the girl doing as well as she might! And now that Pru had heard that Clementine Gribble was definitely not coming back for the sixth there was nobody in the class likely to upset this girl Frieda, unless Leneli had one of her peculiar sulks. Though she was growing out of them; one would just have to hope that Frieda was not racist.

oOoOo

Severus was unaware that he was looking at all grim as he came back into the house in Orme Court; he was frowning to himself in concentration of hoping that he would not let Pru and her ambitions down over Astronomy because it meant a lot of working alone for her; and he would have to brush up his own knowledge to guide her! Sevnev however did notice and giggled; then sang to the tune of the second half of the Postman Pat theme,

"_Everybody knows his deep dark scowl_

_All his pupils quail as they rise to greet him._

_Maybe, you can never be sure,_

_There'll be whack, bonk,_

_You've been Gibbsed once mooooore"_

And Severus Gibbsed his son lightly with two fingers.

"Ten out of ten for ingenuity and quick parody horrid brat" he said. "I'm scowling am I? Well it's because a girl needs me to be a tutor for a subject I'm rusty on and never took to NEWT and she wants to study that far."

"Oh that's what library work is for" said Sevnev airily "It's the second reason for having a library. The first is researching mischief of course."

"Well I dare say YOU'LL be a Marauder one day then" said Severus. "I'll go and poke around in Smith's secondhand bookshop; you're quite right" he added, ruffling Sevnev's hair and wondering if the lad would actually go back to being Severus formally at school or whether the childhood shortening of Severus Neville would stick.

oOoOo

It was a matter of some minor excitement to take possession of a portrait of one Eutropius Gaunt, wearing the Peverell ring in his portrait; David Fraser had acquired it for Krait from the auction house of the parent of a young muggleborn witch, and Severus took the Orme Court Hearse – the minibus that the New Marauders had done up as a hearse – to collect it and take his youngsters to meet young Coral Sneden.

He took Neesa Smith along as well so the half elf, half goblin child adopted by Anastasius and Grace Smith might know another little girl; since unless the muggleborn child was a tomboy, Sevvy and Tarquin would not have much in common with her. And as Coral kept fairies in her dolls' house Severus was glad to have made that decision!

Eutropius Gaunt was snippy, having lived in a muggle loft for a very long time; so Krait proceeded to offend him further by telling him in no uncertain terms what the Gaunts had come to; and challenging him to rise above the normal view of Gaunts by showing some degree of humanity and sanity. They were going to hang him somewhere in the Prince Peak school and Krait threatened to hang him near Cornelius Slytherin who was NOT fond of the Gaunts at all and resented his daughter having married one.

Eutropius descended into sullen silence which made, as Krait said, for a less stressful drive back to London with him.

oOoOo

Severus took the portrait of Eutropius out to Austria and met Jade there, taking a brief time off organising her own school to organise a weevil fest of her own. She had talked Herzog Eduard Von Frettchen into organising it and was collecting Yrdl's brother Reaz Breuer to add to Paul Ingate, Severus' ward to meet Zhenga Rebet, adopted daughter of her own potions' master, Fyra Gan Neric and Alrik Gan Torik, who she was herself sponsoring to meet the Ferret's new brother-in-law, Wilhelm Schmitt and his best friend Serrik gan Torgar. As most the others who were coming into the school were younger siblings of those already there, she also managed to persuade the parents of Bertha Jorkins-Kovaci, Bruno Accola and Lydia Grant to let their offspring attend; though the little brother of Saula Kim who had been at Durmstrang and who Saula thought would do better at Prince Peak would not come so far from Kazakhstan. It was time, Jade said, that Von Frettchen did for Europe what Lucius did in England and needed to be done before the bride dropped whatever ferret kitten or kittens she was carrying.

"You are a bad girl" said Severus.

Jade grinned.

"I had to fence with him a sight more than you when we were stealing him from Odessa" she said "I'm allowed to be rude about him. Besides, I told him how to go about finding a nice girl; and he took my advice and it worked very nicely."

"And you're still a bad girl" said Severus.

oOoOo

Fyra and Alrik held hands; they had grown up together and were almost like brother and sister even before they had been brought into the blood group to protect them inside the walls of scary Durmstrang castle.

And now they were going to school for themselves and meeting some of their schoolfellows ahead of time.

The part human child looked pugnacious.

"My name's Zhenga Rebet but I like to be called Zhen" she said. With short red hair she could have passed as a boy quite easily.

"That's fine" said Fyra "I'm Fyra; this is Alrik. Do you know Frau Von Luytens too? We've been learning from her."

"She helped my mum give birth" said Zhenga "'Cos I got a new little sister. Now I have a proper dad and I can use his name" and she put up her chin.

"It sounds a human name and you don't use 'gan'" said Alrik.

"My mum's a half breed" said Zhenga defiantly.

"I guess that's not important so long as she loves you and so does your new dad" said Fyra "I don't have a mum; she died along with a baby that took too long to come; there's only my dad and my little brother."

"That's tough" said Zhenga. "It's wrong that people don't let goblins and part goblins use midwifery potions and spells; my mum's a potioneer and she's going to go around with human and goblin bodyguards and give people contraceptive and midwifery potions; Frau Von Luytens is paying for it. And she's to train to teach others. I'm going to be a potioneer too; one of the most famous people in the world is the potioneer Severus Snape and he's our headmaster!" she added awed.

"And he's Frau Von Luytens dad too!" said Fyra. "I say, we've been introduced to two others; will you come and meet them? We're a bit short of girls so I'm jolly glad to have you to be friends with, and both of us speaking German too so it'll be nice to talk in our own language; we have to learn French and English too; Alrik and me have learned a little."

"My daddy has taught me English and German because most potioneering books are written in those languages; I'm Ukrainian" said Zhenga "Who are these others?"

Paul Ingate and Reaz Breuer were already friends from growing up around the Prinzhorn together; and Reaz explained that he had a goblin dad but had adopted his and his siblings' sponsor's surname because it was originally to protect them and now because they were all so proud of her; and that their dad also used it as a surname.

"Except that it's not so appropriate for me because I haven't made much of a showing yet at potions; but I DO like metalwork – dad's a cauldron maker and he does tourist metalwork too – so when we get a metalwork teacher NEXT year I should be all right in at least one subject! I really want to do well enough not to let down Aunt Anett and my big sisters because I'm the oldest boy."

The children were presented formally to the other human and goblin pair of friends by the tall, aristocratic man; Wilhelm and Serrik grinned as they made their bows.

"We're looking to get into trouble as well as to learn lots" said Wilhelm.

"Oh, is it your ambition to be marauders?" asked Fyra.

"YOU know about Marauders?" said Reaz.

"There are Marauders too at Durmstrang where we have lived" said Alrik. "It is jolly; and serious also, because Marauders get into mischief to practise fighting dark wizards; the older ones at Durmstrang had some nasty people to fight last year, a wicked uncle and too an undead thing that killed loads of muggles to keep sort of alive."

"This Marauding sounds good" said Wilhelm "My brother in law, Eduard, fought Odessa. And he puts right wrongs as well, he found out that people ignore building regulations and he and my sister bully ministry people."

"That's worth doing in any country" said Paul. "Uncle Severus says the ministry will wriggle like a maggot on a line to get out of doing anything they don't want to."

"Graphic if disgusting" said a small girl who had just arrived "Lydia Grant; I'm the youngest of a huge array of Grants from Prince Peak and I say, are there any brooms here to play quidditch? Nothing like a good game to break the ice! I have Bertha somewhere with me, her family have gone to Prince Peak for a couple of generations too and she has marauding brothers – you WERE talking about Marauders weren't you? – though she isn't sure she'd want to Maraud."

"I don't think I do; my stars don't recommend me taking undue risks" said Bertha following on behind Lydia "Though of course I support what Marauders stand for and I SHALL join the MSHG."

This was quickly explained and Fyra and Alrik looked at each other and said

"OH, like the English Custom Club."

"Is this all the year?" asked Lydia "I know some years are a bit small; there are nine of us which isn't bad."

"There's three more to come but only one of them's joining us here" said Paul, who knew most of such things as Severus' ward "One is a long way away in one of the Stans sort of a long way east and he has a sister at Durmstrang and the other is a boy from Sweden who's an artist and nobody knows him yet. We're missing a Swiss boy whose sisters are already at school."

"Well it will be easier to be friendly to newcomers if we already know each other" said Fyra equably "Just four girls then? Oh well, we shall have to SOUND as though we outnumber you boys then."

"Sounds good" agreed Zhenga "We shan't let them beat us!"

Once brooms had been found, the final child had turned up, half goblin Bruno Accola whose parents were actually married, a strange state of affairs to Zhenga, who was only just getting used to the idea that her human dad was actually prepared to marry someone not fully human. Bruno was a merry youth who knew Paul and Reaz a little from their visits to Switzerland on holiday trips.

Alrik joined the girls for a five a side quidditch match and the girls and Alrik trounced the boys. Partly because of the blood bond between Fyra and Alrik and partly because Lydia was really rather good, more than making up for Zhenga being rather unhandy on a broom; of the boys only Wilhelm was any good, but it did not matter because they were all having fun together.

It was all good fun; meeting people and exploring the German Duke's extensive and beautiful castle and even being scolded by his house elves for being too close to beautiful and priceless treasures whenever they were indoors. But most of the children were glad to go back to their respective homes.

As Zhenga confided to Fyra, it was tough being away from home and she missed mummy and little Nefrina and she would be away for most of the next few years.

Fyra nodded; and explained how she and Alrik had missed home because of being the safeguards of their community, because if they did not receive letters every week from their fathers, Frau Von Luytens – or Fraulein Von Strang as she was then – would know to punish those who had been wicked. Frau Von Luytens was also Jade Snape, daughter of Professor Snape, and she had pretended to be Fraulein Von Strang to help bring down Odessa and it was all quite complex; but it was also a Marauder thing. Fyra and Zhenga, Alrik, Wilhelm and Serrik were determined to Maraud. Reaz was not sure; Paul smiled and said Ingates were supporters not marauders and the other two girls were undecided. Bruno was also cautiously keen; his sister Roseli was not a marauder but said they were cool; and his stuffy oldest sister Leneli, who was to be a prefect this year, was also in a year of marauders and said they were rough and noisy. Which description from Leneli was almost enough to make Bruno want to Maraud on its own.

Zhenga thought that with friends as close as it seemed Marauders were supposed to be it would make being away from mummy easier; and it was nice to think that as mummy would be living with daddy in the school where HE was to be teaching there would be no risk from the crime bosses and pimps so at least she need not worry about mummy. And Professor Snape was a friend of Daddy and they respected each other so it was almost as though there was kind of sort of family nearby.

And she was NOT going to be homesick because she was a big girl of eleven.

oOoOo

Darryl Zabini was going to miss not so much home – Prince Peak WAS his home now – but Mimi Snape. And though this was his last year, it was another whole year after that before she would finish school. Still, he had his NEWTs to concentrate on, and coming to terms with the fact that the Lowther twins and cronies would actually be in the sixth form and almost responsible adults – a scary thought! The Lowthers and their cronies Rory and Randolph would too have to make three new lower sixths welcome; Mungo Fraser, who Darryl knew from Hogwarts, who was transferring rather than be in a school where his adoptive father was headmaster; the kid from Durmstrang that Severus had asked him to keep an eye out for, who had brain damage; and a young man who had only five OWLs – or rather ZPs – not because he was lacking but because those were all the local school offered. He was to be a quaestor, or Anwalt as the Germans called their legal advisors. Darryl had volunteered to run through with this lad Marius what he had covered in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, both of which Marius hoped to take to NEWT; and Percy Weasley would talk to him about history. Marius wanted to take a ZH in European History and Severus was happy to have in German examiners to facilitate that, or have the lad take the exam in Durmstrang, whichever seemed best at the time. Marius could not prove a pure enough bloodline to be accepted at Durmstrang, and was ineligible to go there to study but he was one of Jade's protégés. Darryl grinned. Snapes always had protégés. The brain damaged girl was one of her projects too and had been wished firmly onto Pru Buffer who was a good sort and not too academic to scare the poor kid. And Pru was a prefect too now; and at least the lower sixth would have healthy numbers with the addition of these three, with eleven in; and two more boys for the Yule ball a trivial reason to want plenty of boys in the girl-heavy upper forms but not one to be ignored. There were four of each of them in the upper sixth and for the first time the boys outnumbered the girls in the lower sixth which was just as well since ten of the sixteen in the fifth were girls. At least his blood brother Victor Crabbe would be available as a spare, staying on to do post NEWT work; as was Seagh Snape, still researching music in magic, but likely to find a subsequent engagement rather than dance at the Yule Ball! Seagh was snide enough to make Oscar Wilde's comments sound perfectly natural coming from him as quotes and one could easily imagine him telling ministry control of import officials that he had nothing to declare but his genius as much as declaring that he was unavailable for having a subsequent engagement.

And Darryl, Victor and Seagh worked well together; and Darryl wondered, when Mimi left school, whether they would work together either as freelance fighters against the remnants of Odessa or in setting up another free school, especially if Victor and Seagh met any special ladies.

He strongly suspected that Seagh was interested in one Traudl Mondshein, one of the German bloodgroup; who also had fey blood. Traudl was teaching in Jade's school and there was not a dedicated senior chanting professor save Jade herself so maybe Seagh would be lost to them. Or whether if they did work together, Jade would just replace her Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. Well that all remained to be seen.

And before all that they were to go to England for the season's weddings; Lucius Malfoy and wives presiding over the marriages of anyone who was anyone in the wizarding world, even if those who were merely socialites and had not fought Voldemort did not understand some of their choices of young couples to launch.

Nobody would question Lydia Snape marrying Viktor Krumm; Lydia was a Malfoy as well as Severus' adopted daughter; and Viktor Krumm was big enough news at any time for being a sports hero. And that his half brother was also marrying one of Severus' wards, Helga Von Strang would be considered reasonable, two brothers getting married together, even if they had never heard of the younger one. Mei Chang to Mad Lockhart was also going to go down well; the Changs were an old and respected family, and the Lockharts were on the fringes of society. Lucius was known to have become friendly with the Arthur Weasleys, so launching Arthur's young cousin Theo in his wedding to Peronel Pettigrew would not raise too many eyebrows; and most people would have forgotten who Peter Pettigrew was and how he had been a deatheater.

What the skirters would find it hard to understand would be Lucius' launch of nobodies like Shona Moorcroft and Nigel Clough, families from the wrong sort of neighbourhoods; that he did it as a favour to Severus because Shona and Nigel were some of the most able potioneers he had taught in Hogwarts before moving to Prince Peak would puzzle such snobs. And what would shock them outright would be the marriage of Kreacher the elf to Polly, first elf in Hogwarts and a marauder with Lydia, Mei, Mad, Chad, Leo and Mort. And naturally Lydia, Mei and Polly wanted to get married together. And from Lucius' point of view it was a statement; that elves were people too. And Kreacher would enjoy posturing; he had become such a style nazi since he had accepted freedom and so wore clothes! He had even asked Lydia to brew him a potion to enable him to grow facial hair; that, once cut to the length he wanted did not grow any further because it was not a natural growth. He had a rather Mephistophelian beard and moustache and it actually looked good on him; and Polly loved him for his rebellious nature and desire to be different. They would take the surname 'Black'; because Kreacher was Sirius' much loved brother. And the name settled on Polly and her parents, Kirrin, would not die because Polly had a small brother called Drax because Draco Malfoy had sorted out their inheritance.

Yes it should be fun at the weddings, seeing how much outrage there was amongst those who considered themselves out of the top drawer and yet really had very little idea at all of all that went on behind the scenes.

oOoOo

Before the weddings would be the World Cup; and their very own David Fraser to referee the game between Portugal and Poland. Bulgaria had suffered the retirement of several players besides Viktor though there were a good number of young players coming up; Bulgaria would be great again. And at least, thought Darryl, Brazil was also out, knocked out by Portugal and leading to disgraceful scenes of violence that had earned Brazil a banning for the next three World Cups. He was looking forward to going to the World Cup; Severus was taking all his children and wards and dependants to support David; in fact they were to go in the Prince Peak helicopter. It was a good job it was a great deal bigger on the inside than the outside! And Viktor and Lydia were going together; and Darryl had teased that they were taking their honeymoon before the wedding.

"And why not?" said Viktor "Both of us teaching a selection of brats, we shall hardly have the chance to have one afterwards!"

"And I AM good enough to brew appropriate potions" said Lydia "We plan to be married for the year round before we think of a family; so no unscheduled sprogs for us!"

Darryl laughed.

"And from anyone but a Snape that would be time for a comment about hope triumphing over expectation; but I have no doubt you really will manage to plan your family!"

"As Mimi will" said Lydia.

Mimi and Darryl both blushed!

It WAS as well that they were to be separated for a while yet; Darryl looked into the loving eyes of his beloved and diminutive betrothed and knew that both had far to much ingenuity not to manage to jump the gun if they were both at school together!

Well, they should do their best to be good when NOT separated; and if they could not be good, Mimi could be skilful. Not that Darryl was at all poor at potions; he was on line for an 'O' grade at NEWT. But Mimi had the touch of having grown up with the world's pre-eminent potioneer!

And anyone who was at school under him was fortunate indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The Belsornians had really gone to town in making a permanent quidditch venue for international matches; a huge stadium and a complete sports village with hotels catering to all purses, and a field for those who preferred to camp or who could not afford the hotels, especially if they had shelled out for tickets to the match. Wizarding Wireless Vision had been set up to cover matches live and hotels all had viewing halls for those who could not get tickets. The whole Belsornian nation had taken quidditch to their hearts; though that was scarcely surprising since the revenue from hosting international matches meant that the people would never have to pay taxes again!

Severus and family had taken a box and waved to Lucius and family in their box.

The various mascots came out and performed; Shishigi, Polish wood nymphs, and Duende, the Hispanic Leprechaun with their outsize hats, and Seagh happily declaring that now he would have an opportunity to learn more about their skills of hypnotic whistling to draw people off in the direction they chose.

Severus grinned to note that David had set up a music-sucking exclusion zone, a reason now made clear as to why he wanted to dig deep into a book of dark magic; these mascots would not be affecting the result!

And then the game was under way and David looked to be everywhere, adjudicating fairly and well. Though there were few fouls for him to have to sort out; which was a relief.

"Maybe they think he'll set them Kipling if they don't behave" murmured Lilith.

"He'll certainly set YOU Kipling if you don't behave" retorted Seagh.

The teams were closely matched; but the Polish formation flying was superb and drew slightly ahead on points through it before long.

And then, within half an hour of the match starting, a freak accident occurred.

The missile barrier Severus and family had chanted up to prevent bumphing, knocking bludgers towards the crowd, was still in place; nobody had removed it and the IAQ considered it such an excellent safeguard that they had voted to maintain it.

The bludger, struck by Garcia of Portugal, missed the chaser he was aiming at, bounced off the barrier and took the Polish seeker, Radetskia in the back. She plummeted. The crowd gasped. Lydia louder than most; it was an almost identical strike to the one that had broken Gorbrin's back that only a chant had healed.

David signalled a medical time out and the healers ran on and the team captains flew over. The Portuguese captain Trucco was apologising profusely, as was Garcia.

The two captains joined David.

The announcer could hear what went on between David and the captains and said,

"The Portuguese captain feels that such an accident is an unfair advantage since the medics insist that skelegrow is needed, eight hours out at minumum for Radetskia; he is asking David Fraser to use esoteric English magic to heal the Polish seeker and Captain Zdun has agreed" he went on "Fraser has declared this a credit to quidditch and he is right; this is the sort of sportsmanship that we should all emulate. We are about to see an expert in chanting at work" he added in a hushed voice.

"Well the boy isn't bad" said Severus as David proceeded to chant.

Radetskia groaned and sat up.

Zdun pushed her down again; David had not finished. When he had he signalled for them to restart the game; and the crowd cheered wildly, for both sportsmanship and for David Fraser who could give them a better match with his skills.

oOoOo

The game went on all day and play was halted when David called light; they would resume early next day and the Snapes would bring a packed breakfast so as not to miss anything.

oOoOo

The morning's play began with a determined series of scores from Portugal, who were lifted by becoming the darlings of the crowd. Poland responded, but Portugal had the measure of the aggressive formation flying, a variant on the Hawkshead Attacking formation, and the Portuguese chasers pulled themselves sideways on to the arrowhead formation to make them pull up or be in danger of being given foul for blatching, flying with intent to collide.

"A bit like us playing chicken at Durmstrang" said Krait.

And then, half way through the morning, the crowd gave a shout.

The Portuguese seeker, Mendez, had seen the snitch!

Radetskia was quickly after him, flying like a demon; and both jinked and whirled in a dance about the fluttering snitch, each trying to get into a position to take it; and David must keep his eyes partly on that and partly on the continued scoring that was becoming frenetic as each team strove for an advantage, desperate to be more than fifteen goals up to offset the catching of the snitch.

And then it was all over; and David blew his whistle.

The wiry Mendez had twisted, rolled, hung upside-down off his broom and caught the snitch in his sleeve, rapidly clapping the other hand to it to stop it flying out again before he could get skin contact, desperately hanging on by the ankles. And as the whistle went ending the match Mendez took his broom low, raised his head, and let go with his feet to drop in an ungainly pile to the ground as the easiest way of getting himself out of the predicament.

The noise from the crowd was tremendous!

The score stood at nine hundred and sixty to Portugal, eight hundred and twenty to Poland, the Poles having just outscored the Portuguese with quaffles.

"Well THAT was a result" said Lydia happily to Viktor "Best game I've ever seen; fast, exciting, and so few fouls you'd think they had Red Card Rolanda as well as David."

Viktor laughed.

"It was a credit to quidditch like David said" he agreed. "An excellent omen for a harmonious marriage for us."

"Now don't you start on omens, love" said Lydia "I'm not so snippy about them Jade is – I've never been the subject of prophecy so I can afford to be more laid back – but none of us Snapes considers omens with any degree of seriousness."

Viktor laughed.

"Ah, my apologies, dear one" he said. "I am not ruled by omens; but it is a nice way to start – well nearly start – our married life together."

"THAT I'll agree to" said Lydia.

oOoOo

After the World Cup Randolph Wright went back with Lucius' contingent. There was to be a big symposium of teachers at Malfoy Manor, and he and Erica were to talk art seriously. Randolph had news from David Fraser that patterns woven into flying carpets could protect them from jinxes or make them warm when flying at altitude; and that was to share too. They had been exchanging excited letters by owl, Erica's sometimes with scrawls on by her fiancé who took metalwork seriously and could see plenty of uses of art and pattern magic in that. Their task was to work with Charlotte Malfoy to put together an OWL on the subject that Charlotte would then examine. She had approached other wizarding artists and asked for their input but had been rebuffed with the comment, almost universal, that those who COULD paint did not need an OWL in it since they knew how to make portraits; and they had been uninterested in any other reason to study art. Charlotte had given up and told them to keep their narrow, limited views and carry on with their fartwork.

As a fine artist herself she could equal any of the top artists in the country at the moment; and could, and did, tell them where to go.

She had then painted the most pompous in a pastiche of a famous work of Dali and entitled it 'painter autosodomised by his own ego' which, being a recognisable portrait, had Lucius roaring with laughter and taking it up to town to show around.

Randolph was only aware that Madam Malfoy had had some trouble finding artists ready to be co-operative and thought it a shame; but he and Erica would be doing something brand new!

There was at least Androbius Pingit, an Argentinian artist of mixed descent including English who was both eminent and prepared to learn; and he would be prepared to examine Erica as obviously her own mother could not; he had written long and rambling letters with sketches giving input. He was most impressed that Charlotte as a muggle had learned to use wizarding paints and complimented her fulsomely enough for Lucius to refer to him as 'that damned Dago'.

oOoOo

Severus travelled to Malfoy manor himself; because of the symposium he had been setting up. He had talked a lot of disparate teachers into holding an all-subject symposium; and had talked Lucius into letting them hold it at Malfoy Manor while he waited for the arrival of Tanjela's baby. The Malfoys would not be involved save that Narcissa was in her element organising the logistics and Lucius intended to attend what talks he could being an accredited examiner. A significant number of the teachers of Hogwarts and Durmstrang had accepted invitations; Jade and her new teachers were to attend for just two days of the five as they had so much to do getting their new school ready to, as Jade put it, pick the brains of experienced folk and get to know opposite numbers. The New Marauders and friends from the Free School were coming. Beauxbatons too had sent a contingent, and one or two of the small schools offering three or four OWLs, awed to be invited; and Hellibores returned only Hellibore himself and his younger teachers fresh from the ongoing symposium, as Hellibore put it, of Severus Snape's school.

Naturally all the Prince Peak teachers turned up to listen to the pearls of wisdom of others, except Ron who came in body with Hermione, but declared that it would make his head ache and suggested that he coach small Malfoys and their etceteras in quidditch, which was voted a great solution

He was joined by Viktor because Lydia wanted to discus chanting.

Severus welcomed everyone.

"We've got a few talks planned" he said "But the general idea of this symposium is to get to know each other, swap ideas, and see how far our various pet subjects overlap. I have certainly found that the more you learn, the more there is to learn; and the more things tie together. I cite chanting that can only be truly powerful with understanding of ancient runes, Arithmancy and higher levels of theory of charms and transfiguration and a passing acquaintance with comparative magic doesn't come amiss."

There were murmurs of assent from those who were already converted and noises of disbelief from those who were not.

"But Severus, we 'ave no chanters in Beauxbatons, and we are pestered by ze French Quidditch Association to train some as 'ealers; what am I to do?" said Madam Maxime.

"Olympe, I have a French child in my school in the second year whose father is a healer; he's over at the back there somewhere because I invited him to attend" said Severus "And she has come specifically to learn chanting. And her father puts in what free time he has to learn also; and you will doubtless soon have a competent teacher of chanting. You can't have Hercule back though; he's too good an ancient runes teacher and a stalwart of the trains club" he added.

"I have a Dutch lad and an Italian girl just entering the sixth who have learned chanting under Jade Snape, Olympe" said Agata Bacsó "They will be likely to want a job in a couple of years; either one will fit in with your pupils I think. They are pleasant young people."

"Desolina would do well to have her confidence boosted though" said Jade laconically "She HAS got a poor self image; and she's so beautiful all the boys will get tonsillitis for leaving their tongues hanging out. Sigismundus is inclined to the abrasive and he doesn't suffer fools. Period. I like him; but I'm not a fool."

"Besides, he's one I have my eye on to start a Scandinavian School when you've trained replacements for us" said Bertel Elstrup.

"Poacher" said Jade without rancour. "Desolina then, Olympe? Perhaps you will write to her and ask if she is willing; to be wanted as a teacher before she even leaves school will be a real boost!"

"I agree" said Agata; and Olympe nodded.

"I shall do so" she said.

The first talk was Orlando Carcano on the subject of using Wizarding Wireless Vision as a supplement to lessons as well as to substitute for a lack of professors; and Mei Chang gave a supplemental talk as she was teaching in a school with limited resources and only a few professors, though as she said, her husband-to-be had made one more. Lucius assisted Orlando to demonstrate how a school might store globes with recorded information that could then be brought out at need; a globe would only hold ten minutes of stored footage, but this could be used, Orlando pointed out as supplemental to a broadcast programme or a Professor's lecture notes; in his subject, care of beasts, whilst there was no substitute for getting up front and personal, a view of a rare or difficult to see beast or a reiteration of the correct way to clean a firecrab was a useful thing for pupils to see more than once. He also mentioned tentatively that he had footage of the birth of twin unicorns and then wished he had not as it took a while for the hubbub to die down.

"Ar, and it's handy to have a broadcast too when it's snowin'" said Hagrid, who had been talked into coming only because both Orlando and Madam Maxime were to be there, as well as David.

"Or when you're on top of a mountain when there's precious little wildlife that can reach you" said David.

Ross Tuthill nodded; being there as one of the new teachers of Prince Peak with his wife Heather – Geomancy – and sister Freya – comparative magic. For that reason he would find supplemental material useful.

Freya had been promised by Jade a chance too to talk to a Japanese boy at some point about eastern traditions and she was looking forward to it; and meanwhile a symposium of skills by some of the world's most academic people thrilled her to the core; as too it thrilled Hermione.

It was generally reckoned to be a very productive few days, with two talks a day and discussion groups and informal debates going on late into the night. It might have been better organised a different year; but the time had felt right and Severus had put it off more than once because of such interruptions as Odessa; and he was NOT going to put it off again.

oOoOo

The ancient runes people had got into a huddle together and seemed to be talking a variety of incomprehensible languages and gloating; Jade, Bertel Elstrup, Traudl Mondschein, Lydia Snape, Bathsheba Babbling, Agalisse Schreiber, Hercule Maxime and a Monsieur Deveraux enjoyed themselves no end; though not all of them taught Ancient Runes as their first subject. The arithmancers spoke their own language too until Jade strolled over and asked a very technical question that left most of them staring at her in horror and had Hermione throwing a cushion at her.

Severus grinned. Trust Jade to throw a cat among the pigeons; he followed her gist – as, he knew, did Hermione; and so did Krait who was holding two conversations at once, one with the arithmancers and one with Attila Nagy, the Transfiguration Professor at Durmstrang. It horrified young Cenric Grant of Hellibore's, made poor Septima Vector think hard and completely lost the vapid creature from Beauxbatons. It took Fenella Fenwick, teaching both Arithmancy and Mathematics at Rowan house to come up with an answer, added to by Hermione and with quick rounding off by Septima. Katarina Nachtigall stayed wisely out of it; she followed the argument but was not yet experienced enough to have joined in.

It WAS rather a favourite subject of Jade's, the different universes though which one passed or to which one sent vanished material; and the discussion on what exactly happened to vanished matter and was the place to which it went inimical to life was an ongoing discussion – usually over breakfast – of his more academic offspring.

But then, Jade had always gone her own way in the world of academe as well as in doing what she thought was right; and was continuing to do that in Germany by the looks of it. His daughter had picked up an adoptive daughter and a probable son; the little girl was a half goblin with dark red hair and Jade had named her Lily Grace; good names and with family connection too. She was a little older than Ralph, which would not be noticeable when they got to school together; and seemed a sunny child. The little boy was presumably one of Jade's protégés for her free school, a goblin lad of about eleven who watched Jade and Wulf with the sort of hungry yet wary eyes that wanted them as kin and was half afraid of what it might mean; or that they would reject him.

Doubtless Jade would soon sort THAT out; she was very perspicacious and would, had she been there, have seen long before he had done that Silvina craved being his daughter. Well she had settled down to it very well now; and Severus had learned to love her dearly as a daughter. And here at Malfoy Manor his oldest adoptive daughter Grace was making much of her newest sister to draw her in to the extended family. It would all help Silvina's sense of self worth!

oOoOo

The symposium came to an end just after Lucius excused himself because his wife was in labour; he was wished good luck by most people and Severus was left to hold a final question and answer session from questions that had been formulated – if any – over the time period and to pick those who could answer them to do so. There were very few, and mostly from the French; almost everyone else had managed to get any questions answered in informal discussion. And then they broke up and went on their various ways, feeling on the whole enriched for the experience and, especially on the part of the teachers of the small schools, ready to tackle new things with more optimism. And one of the small school's principals said with more truth than tact as she shook hands with Severus,

"I didn't know posh people could be so nice."

One of the things Severus had been glad to pass around was that his school offered scholarships to the truly talented; and that if a child came to a small school whom they felt would benefit from more or specialist teaching, they might be entered for a scholarship and could be so entered up to the third year when electives were chosen so long as they had a basic grounding. This was really for musical or artistic children; but not exclusively. And Severus would go on a case-by-case basis.

oOoOo

Tanjela was duly delivered of a daughter – which delighted her, since she had given Lucius three sons and had tried again only in the hopes of getting a girl; which as she had previously produced only three boys out of her long family of daughters for Tobak was a bit of an irony. Lucius did not care – any more than Tobak had done – in that he loved all his children equally. But all her sister wives understood, and other close family like Krait, who took her turn cooing over both new babies.

"Not that you're pregnant again" grinned Narcissa.

Krait smiled serenely.

"Yes and I thought it must be a girl because I'm sailing through it; but Severus let out that he'd used Scarpin's Revellaspell and it IS a boy; because I got waspish at him for being excessively tender of me. I think I, like you, Tanjela, will call it a day after this baby; he's my number seven which is quite enough for me, thank you!"

"Well I've had nine pregnancies for my dozen children; and I doubt I'd have had more than the first bunch if there hadn't been Lucius" said Tanjela. "Have you seen the 'Prophet'?"

"Not if I can avoid it" said Krait "At least, not without a sick bag. What crap have they printed now?"

Tanjela laughed.

"Oh apparently now Finn and I are Lucius' poor exploited political wives, expected to carry on having children to further his political ends with half breed children to show off."

"Honestly!" said Krait "It's enough to make one consider just dropping the 'Daily Prophet' offices into a hole in the ground! Is Lucius suing or can't he be bothered?"

"Oh you know Lucius – he's suing again, accusing them of making his wives into brood mares and treating us with disrespect; turning their innuendoes entirely on their head" laughed Tanjela.

"Nice; he's a clever little sod in his own environment" chuckled Krait.

"Monty Python" said Draco, who was doing his share of cooing over his new sisters.

oOoOo

The weddings were largely Marauder affairs; and for Severus and Krait poignant in including their daughter Lydia. Jade was to blow in briefly for the ceremony but was much tied up with dire orphanages in Germany; but nothing would stop her being matron of honour for her favourite sister's wedding!

The other marauders being married were Mad Lockhart to Mei Chang – who had rather rashly elected to have Chrysogon Rufus as a page boy, which would attract much media attention to the poor child – Polly Kirrin to Kreacher, though Kreacher was not strictly a marauder; and another tenuous Marauding connection with Peronel Pettigrew, daughter of disgraced marauder Peter, marrying her Theo Weasley and doubtless telling reporters that she had always belonged to Theo; which, strictly speaking, she had, having been his pet rat before her manimagus human form emerged. Peter was mildly disgusting at times; but both Severus and Krait were sorry for him; and love for his daughter had improved him no end and brought him out of himself. Severus was one of those who volunteered to give Nell – as she was known – away, together with Sirius and Harry, which had touched Peter no end. In the end it was to be Theo's father who gave her away; as he and his wife had reared Nell since her unexpected expression into humanity. The wedding was to be filmed for Peter to keep, using Orlando's new methods.

The final couple were protégés of Severus, Shona Moorcroft and Nigel Clough, poor children who had won scholarships for potioneering to Hogwarts through attending Rowan House when it accepted day students from London to boost numbers of squibs and siblings of the talented. They were both working with Pete Prince in Obscura Alley and had waited to save for a year before getting wed; and Severus wanted to show HIS support for them, hence asking Lucius to include them on the wedding list.

Lucius was always willing to oblige a friend; and it made for more to irritate those who considered themselves to be society. As would launching two elves; though that passed Severus by entirely since he had ceased to see free elves as anything but people. Krait thought of it and grinned maliciously; doubtless there would be at least ONE ill advised comment that would be grist to Lucius' litigious hobby.

The weddings went with a swing, Lydia and Polly having chosen muggle-inspired robes based on evening gowns of the classy nineteen thirties; and Mei in traditional Chinese garb in red brocade and Chrysogon Rufus in white satin and HOW he had managed to avoid staining it when taking part in an illicit and unsanctioned blooding of Mei's little squib cousin Yulan was more of a wonder, as Mad put it, than finding a courteous German. Chrys looked as though butter would not melt in his mouth; and Mei, who was fond of Yulan, readily forgave him.

Lydia and Viktor so obviously adored each other and Severus was happy to give her away; Erich claimed the right to give away his little half sister Helga to Viktor's half brother Stoyan; and if there was some tension between the respective mothers of the Krumm boys, there was at least no fighting.

Severus could not help being proud of how beautiful Lydia looked; all Malfoy magnolia skin perfection, violet blue eyes shining like stars and her silver gilt ringlets loose beneath her veil. She outshone any other woman there except perhaps his beloved Krait, and on so happy an occasion his dear Sirri and dear Dione, he thought; and Jade with her own brand of serene beauty. And Mimi – dear me, what a young woman she was now; and the next family wedding likely to be her and Darryl!

It may be said that Severus was somewhat biased because Lucius too was preening at his niece's beauty and reflecting that only HIS wives were lovelier.

oOoOo

And when Severus got back home he found that an owl had left a message from Jade telling him that he would have an adult student, Herr Horst Müller, who would be coming to him for a year to learn Geomancy as he had 'just picked up' enough to teach his daughter and her friend some and she wanted him trained as a teacher; he being a second generation wizard who was not entitled to education at Durmstrang even if his parents could afford it. His daughter was to go to Jade's school and Jade felt it a waste not to make use of his knowledge and desire to learn! There would be a wife and younger son along and they would be arriving at the weekend so long as that was all right. And she was certain that it would be.

How like Jade, thought Severus, smiling fondly.

oOoOo

Herr Müller duly arrived with family – including his daughter until term started – and Severus welcomed them warmly and settled them in.

"I have a post NEWT – what you call ZH – class which is, essentially, made up of those who stay on a year, come to me from other schools, or return to education to pursue a line of research that interests them" he said. "I have a few other applicants for this study, and my ward Victor is staying on for the extra year to consolidate; he's thinking of teaching. It's a small class this year, but I try not to have more than half a dozen researchers anyway. It got a little more last year with two returners to education, but I can be flexible. I would suggest that you work at your own pace with tutorials from our new Geomancy Professor, Heather Burns Tuthill; she and her husband are replacing my Geomancy and Care of Beasts Professors and Ross's sister filling in my missing Comparative Magic teacher."

"Excuse me asking, but how did you lose so many?" asked Herr Müller. Severus laughed.

"I lost two people because David Fraser taught Geomancy as well as Care of Beasts; and he was offered the post of Headmaster at Hogwarts school. So naturally his wife, who teaches Comparative magic, has gone with him; and it will be fortuitous, because in a couple of years time the Hogwarts teacher of Comparative Magic plans to set up a school for impoverished witches and wizards in India – he is Indian – and is pleased to have a replacement that he has trained and whom he trusts to take care of his pupils."

"Then a promotion such as that reflects well on you, Herr Snape" said Müller. "A great compliment to you and your school as well as to Herr Fraser that your professors are sought to replace the legendary Professor Dumbledore of whom everyone has heard."

"David will fill those legendary shoes perfectly" said Severus softly "Yes I AM proud of him; the more so perhaps because he was my ward and I stand in place of a father for him; as he is orphaned. He was the first pupil to study Geomancy formally at Hogwarts; his tutor, Sirius Black, put the subject together from his own nefarious uses of mapping – imagine if you will a teenage boy and a map that tells him exactly where any teachers are – and his interest generally. Sirius was sent erroneously to Azkaban – he was framed – and became the only person to escape, purely by his knowledge of Geomancy and how to use ley lines and nodal shift. Ah, I see nodal shift is a new one for you; it is NEWT level. There is a ZP coming in this year but if you manage to take the study further over this year – as I am sure you will – you will have to sit the NEWT exam if you wish to bother with a formal qualification. It might be handy to wave it at people."

"Could I also study Arithmancy?" asked Herr Müller shyly "I have studied mathematics in a muggle school."

"That should be quite easy to arrange; and will help with Geomancy anyway" said Severus "I will ask my wife to teach you how to transfer; she was in a muggle school to the age of fifteen and caught up in time to take seven NEWTs at the correct age; but she IS exceptional."

"Then it is possible that Renate – my friend – and I might catch up the year of schooling we have missed?" asked Valerie, Herr Müller's daughter.

"Assuredly" said Severus "Pray make use of my library; and Birgitta shall let you read her class notes. Birgitta is a tidy and efficient note taker" he added "And she will probably permit you to take them to show your friend also and rely on the notes of one or more of her many friends. She is a resident of the castle and you shall meet her. You may of course also wish to send bulletins of what to study to your friend; but do not work TOO hard in the holidays. Get the FEEL for study; put in half an hour to an hour a day. You will be amazed how much that can do. If you package up your notes, you may then send those to Renate who can study over your self-imposed lessons."

"Thank you sir" said Valerie.

The Müllers would settle in just fine.

oOoOo

Severus had been discussing another matter with his family; and Jade's efforts with the boy Ulvik had made up his mind. He called the orphaned ex werewolf Siegfried to his office.

"Siegfried, you have had a year round to adapt to waking up four hundred years after you went to sleep" he said "And to grieve and come to terms with losing all your family. I have applied to the council to be sure your lands are reassigned to you; and to revive the Barony that did NOT die out with your father. But you are still a small boy; and I wondered if you would like to have a new family and be our adopted son rather than just our ward."

"Oh SIR!" said Siegfried "I cannot think of a better second father; I should like it above all things!"

"Then too we need to discuss whether you will join the blood pact that was started to protect Harry Potter and into which all my natural children are born; and to date all of my adopted children have chosen to include themselves" said Severus. "This too is the secret of the Marauders who use the blood pact for their work; you have not chosen to maraud, but not all who are blood-joined do so. You are old enough to make the choice."

"Sir, if I am joined to you by blood it will be more of a family, will it not?" said Siegfried "And I am not blind, nor deaf, nor stupid; I know full well that those who are blooded help out any focus. And you do good work, curing werewolves, fighting dark wizards; I should like to be a part of it. And to feel my music sing with those of your family like Seagh and Silvina and Jade and the little ones."

"Then it shall be" said Severus softly.

"If I am to be Baron I should like my father's name to endure" said Siegfried "So I would wish to be Siegfried Snape Von Eiche; if that is satisfactory?"

"It is most sensible" said Severus. "I applaud your family feeling; I hope I live up to your real father's high standards."

"He would like you very much – father" said Siegfried.

All that then remained was for a blooding with whoever was around; and that was enough for a quorum.

And Siegfried was beaming all over his face that he belonged to a family again.

How different, thought Severus, was this self possessed little boy with the sense of self worth undiminished by his experience as a werewolf – and THAT was credit to the boy's father – from Jade's little Ulvik who was scared to trust and be happy. He hoped Ulvik would learn to trust and to feel his self worth expanding under love and praise; for there was strength in that one too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Severus considered the three other post NEWT students he was to have; all of them those returning to education after an absence, so all much older than Victor; but where there was a genuine desire to learn – and the fees – it seemed hard to turn them down. Especially Terence Goodchild, who had been impressed by his brother's success and had worked extremely hard to scrape together the fees for a year's concentrated musical experience. It was with Godfrey's blessing; he and his brother had managed to draw much closer since the Wizarding Wireless had highlighted Godfrey; and Terence had begged to be part of the backing group for the record Godfrey released, and Godfrey had accommodated him in that since brothers should work together; and Sara Barbary had played too. Seagh had cheerfully filled in as required since Jade was so busy in Germany; and the record was on sale and doing very well. Terence had put music and brotherly pride over his own needs and Severus wanted to encourage that. And if Terence's twin Chloe was still having a childish temper, that was her look out.

He knew too the second would-be student; Arsène le Fèvre had been part of that long ago duelling contest between Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Hogwarts; the only person to have beaten one of the Hogwarts team, by the expedient of undoing himself by sheer will power out of Hermione's exotic curses to take her down. It had been a useful lesson to them all not to be over confident; and Hermione always made sure any opponent was well and truly disabled and unconscious now! She had been a little taken aback to hear that her old bête noir wanted to study further; but comforted herself that SHE was a professor, and he a student.

"Once I was the learner now I am the master" murmured Severus to himself for want of Draco to do it for him.

Hermione, greatly daring, gave him the two fingered cuff.

"Thanks, Hermione, I needed that" quoted Severus with heavy irony.

The third man to come for the Prince Peak experience was a German who Severus did not know; and so he had interviewed the man and legilimensed him firmly. With young people to protect one could not observe any niceties of good manners about not prying. Albus never let manners interfere with doing what he felt right, after all; and Severus was Albus Dumbledore's man through and through. It appeared that this Anselm Amsel had been both saving money and screwing up his courage since the year Jade had studied in Durmstrang as Nefrita Von Strang and had arranged the Yule Ball there; she had demonstrated to him such wonders of what music could do that Herr Amsel was desirous of learning more, and had discovered that Prince Peak was reckoned THE school for music; the school from which Nefrita Von Strang had transferred. The flautist wanted more from music; and would pay his last knut for it. He was in his late twenties but not too old to unlearn and learn more; because he was eager. With the addition of Herr Müller the group would be quite mature on the whole and Severus hoped Victor would not mind. He spoke to the boy.

Victor shrugged.

"I enjoy the chats we all have, staff and family, when school is out; and are not these students, most of them, of an age with most of the staff? Herr Müller is older but his enthusiasm and joy at being permitted learning is going to make him youthful in spirit. And oh, Severus, I can help him too and learn to teach by teaching him; I got an 'O' for my Geomancy! In fact, if Jade had not found Herr Müller, I would have considered volunteering; should I fill this year for her?"

"No; let her get the school off the ground with basic subjects" said Severus "Start small; her pupils need basics not frills for now; especially those she must push through the ZAP, the German equivalent of the DOE because they are older. And learn to teach, as you say, with Herr Müller. Or Horst as he will be; I will stick to my policy of first name terms between staff and all the senior students. If you teach you too may wish to set up your own school; your problem, my boy, is that you are almost over qualified because you had the aptitude and interest to take all the NEWTs that interested you instead of having to pick a few and aim at getting those that placed you in a particular job. And you may, for that matter, dislike teaching; and decide to pick the easier and safer option of being an Auror."

Victor laughed.

"What I've seen from Odessa, a schoolmaster has to be an auror as well to protect his pupils!" he said. "I might jander off with Seagh to his fey places too if I may; I can enter fey space, I've worked jolly hard on it. I'm not musical but I can watch his back and scowl; we Crabbes tend to be quite beefy. He's about thirty times more dangerous than me, but sometimes looking hard can be an advantage."

Severus laughed.

"Yes, and you can also let people assume you're stupid and learn more thereby; having the look of a born Beater can be an advantage!"

"Thanks Severus, I love you too" grinned Victor.

It was good to be part of Severus' extended family; and he would still be that even though there would be no other senior students his own age. The chances were that he already knew more post NEWT knowledge than even those who looked to improve their more esoteric studies like this Le Fèvre fellow. Which was comforting. He decided to take the risk of asking Hermione what this Frenchman was like.

She pulled a face that was more rueful than distasteful

"Actually he was every inch the gentleman; a fine man and if he'd been at Hogwarts he'd probably have volunteered to fight Voldemort – and been accepted" she said. "Arsène actually joked that it was unfair that Hogwarts had got too much practise against deatheaters for a fair match; able to laugh even in final defeat. Which was at David's hands incidentally in the playoffs" she added. "He's on good terms with Hercule; they were in a class together. It's probably what decided him to come; that Hercule's teaching here. Arsène and I had every respect for each other and he could have been a friend. I should think that having him here for a year will consolidate what was a promising possible friendship. He got into the fight-offs; the only one on the French team to do so, and as only one of the Germans did – the late and unlamented Hedda Schrempf as it happens – it did boost Beauxbaton's morale as well as driving home the point that we were used to the real business of fighting, and our team, even the fourteen year olds, were better than some silly kids in the sixth in other schools. And that, at the time, was a valid point to make because we needed to keep Odessa off balance."

"I guess that makes sense" said Victor.

"He's actually a professional duelling champion in France and Canada" said Hermione "I've followed his career because I take an interest in anyone who can best me. He's quite famous and used to having a following of females" she added sounding like the old disapproving Hermione. Victor hid a smile.

"Well let us hope that not too many of our senior girls follow his career" he said "Still, we don't have any really dippy ones right now; IMAGINE the Tugwoods!"

Hermione shuddered.

"I'd rather not" she said.

oOoOo

Back in England, Randolph Wright was having the time of his life with Erica Malfoy still; and they had put together a syllabus as far as OWL in art; thrashing out levels of attainment for each year in both practical and theory tests.

They had decided that the main emphasis of the exam should be on practical ability; and that the OWL would consist of two practical and one theory papers. There should be an artwork to be worked on during the final year of study as a masterpiece, like the metalworking exam; and a practical in which the candidates should demonstrate the methods to mix magical paint for creating moving pictures and the ritual involved in joining that to the personality of any deceased, and might demonstrate the candidate's choice of attempting a divination using sketching, the use of drawing to change some object; or the use of pattern to enact a spell effect. They would also be expected to produce a pattern with or without runic inclusion as some form of protection, the choice of the candidate. This might be a circle of exclusion or a shield spell made by fine pen – tattooing the examiner being a little extreme – to show virtuosity in a field that any artist might use even if they could not, for example, manage a prophetic drawing on the day.

The written paper would be a short essay question on such things as 'discuss the use of the five-pointed star in its various uses in different cultures' or 'discuss how the increased understanding of perspective in the Renaissance led to a greater mobility for the subjects depicted' or 'discuss the protective charms contained within the kolams or rangoli of the Indian sub continent' or 'compare and contrast the maze and key patterns with reference to China, Ancient Greece and Celtic lands' or 'describe the necessary ritual to produce a moving portrait through which one might access the personality of the dead'. There would be a paper of short questions covering specific pigments, the recognition of powerful patterns, the use of different media to make patterns – which might, argued Randolph, also lead to an essay question 'the medium of the pattern magic has an effect upon the designed use of the pattern; discuss'. The short questions would also cover themes in patterns that were universal, like the key and maze and swastika patterns, the symbology of trees and the magical use of symbolic drawing that became pictograms. This was suggested by Gorbrin who had taken an interest; and he also had added a lot of symbolism about the protective kolams and rangoli, having studied comparative magic; which Erica had not. Fortunately Randolph had and had just smote his forehead and went for his comparative magic notes. David Fraser had spoken of the use of woven patterns in magic carpets which was interesting, though of less practical use to western witches and wizards.

"Mind you, draught excluding charms on curtains would NOT be a half bad idea" said Randolph.

"Especially in the potions dungeon; the door curtain Cousin Krait made for Cousin Severus is wearing awfully thin" said Erica. "I think we need to permit a lot of leeway in the produced artwork; even photography. Muggles count photography as art you know; only it should be – actually ALL masterworks should be – backed up with a working notebook and sketchbook and in the case of photography, technical notes too. I say, I've just thought of a new spell for aurors to use, Gorbrin; from a sketch of a wanted person, the spell lifts it from the page and sends an insubstantial image to seek for its original in a city; and the wand glows when it has found it and will lead you to it."

"Nice idea; if you can work it out I'll be interested" said Gorbrin. "A refinement on the old finding bird spell. You might too see if you can't make it work for a photograph."

"Do my best" said Erica.

Between them they had filled many notebooks on the main issues that were to form the syllabus; and at some point they would publish if the exam were approved; and Charlotte was to take the information and suggested examination criteria to the Ministry of Education Examination Board. It might be too late for Erica to take any qualification in the subject, but as she had been one of the originators of the subject for formal study this was hardly a problem; and Severus would be employing her anyway. There was no requirement that a Professor should be in any way even qualified at all; because of the agency of Tom Riddle, Hagrid had left Hogwarts with no qualifications, yet he taught care of magical beasts and indeed was a renowned authority on some of the larger and more dangerous beasts; though Lucius had been heard to remark waspishly that this was because Hagrid was the only person in the world who considered too many teeth, claws, legs and anything else dangerous looking to be cute.

There was much truth in this comment.

The NEWT would have to be stiffer; and Charlotte suggested that it should build on the OWL. Where an OWL candidate had to demonstrate some theoretical knowledge of painting portraits of the dead, the NEWT should perhaps involve demonstration of the techniques, or even the choice of this as one possible practical masterwork, where the student had to grind their own pigments.

"We left production of pigments out of the short questions" said Erica, scribbling it in.

"In this case the student might also tattoo himself as an artwork" suggested Randolph, "Woven pieces should have the fibres dyed by the candidate to ensure the colours are prepared too with ritual to add to the use of the pattern" said Charlotte.

"You could get quite out of hand and produce an entire building that was a protective pattern in its whole construction" said Gorbrin "Though I should think detailed plans and some carving to demonstrate would be sufficient for that."

"I think we should write these in as suggestions and, like the metalwork, leave it fairly free" said Charlotte. "A metalworking project using pattern might do as well; and even a negotiated item of unusual complexity covering both exams."

"It's exciting being at the centre of something new" said Randolph.

oOoOo

They interrupted their studies when Jade called Lucius and Charlotte to Germany; and they returned with two adoptive daughters, the oldest a half goblin child called Veronika who was already an accomplished artist; the other just a babe of two years.

"Just think little new sister of mine" said Erica "when you're big enough for school, you'll be studying art out of the book we're all writing here; and if you have any unusual talents, why they might end up in later editions as suggestions as ways to use art!"

"Like drawing cakes and sweeties to lift out of the page to eat?" said Veronika

"Show me?" said Erica, giving her coloured pencils.

Veronika produced a cake from the picture she drew of one.

Erica tasted it.

"It's stale" she said. "But how terribly clever!" she added hurriedly, not wanting to seem to criticise.

"Probably the only taste of cake she's had" said Gorbrin dryly. "Our little sister will learn to refine her taste in cakes; it's a form of summoning so complex only Lilith managed it at that age. It isn't real food of course; because when you summon something it doesn't stay, little one."

Veronika nodded.

"And when you get the empty feeling back, the picture comes back on the page and you can't lift it off again" she said "But you've had the TASTE."

"Brilliant, kid!" said Randolph. "And now you'll have your ability mentioned in a book as one of the things people can do; for teachers to look for. That's something, isn't it?"

Veronika nodded dubiously.

She was still adapting to being in a family with almost as many children as she had been in contact with in the orphanage – or so it seemed – but with grownups who hugged and kissed and had time. And with nice clothes and plenty to eat! And no loud arguments or violent men around like before the orphanage. If they liked her drawing sweeties too and it was not forbidden that was even better!

oOoOo

Randolph was thoroughly happy. He enjoyed being amongst the happy, noisy, boisterous Malfoy children; and though they had four mothers, five parents still had to spread thin amongst, with the two new ones and the new babies, better than thirty children. He thought he had added that up right. And every one of those Malfoy kids got given more attention by sundry parents than he had ever done with two parents to his solitary name. It was impossible not to feel envious; but Randolph was a generous soul and the envy did not tip into jealousy. Especially when he considered that several of the kids – he was not sure which ones beside Veronika and Melusina – were adopted. The full blood goblins were step children though that was kind of more expected in some ways than adopting strangers. Some were relations by blood in some degree, he thought; and maybe others had had this ritual done. Lucius and Draco had gone off with Charlotte and the two little girls and when they returned, both had even paler hair than before and violet eyes and a look of the Malfoys. The great thing about the Malfoys was that you just could not TELL; because they were all loved and cherished. And it was not that Mr Malfoy was so rich he did not have to go to work; because he seemed to put in as much work every day as anyone, with government business and with his newspaper; and as he told them over supper, chuckling gleefully, litigation against those who had made it their business to question the couples he had chosen to launch at the wedding.

And Madam Narcissa had smiled indulgently and told Randolph,

"Lucius has his hobbies."

And Madam Finn had quipped,

"And we're four of them."

They were such a FUN family!

And when Ming Chang blew in, the youngest school group put together a harmony to the tune of the Yingtong song that went,

"_Mingchang, Mingchang, Mingchang, Mingchang, Mingchang Yuudle-an tooo_….." and sang it to Ming whilst others played a wild assortment of instruments from fart organ to Saxophone.

Ming handed out two fingered cuffs after he had got over laughing.

And yet the family could be serious; Erica wanted to start a junior branch of the Society to Aid Marginalised Women in Hogwarts and Zajala, who was sharing her room temporarily with a couple of marginalised girls from the Umbrous Lane complex drew them in to her step sister's plans too. Randolph loved the Malfoys with the intensity he loved his fellow Marauders, especially those whose blood sang with his; and he would do anything for them.

And one thing he could do was to help Veronika develop her art; and teach her all he knew. Charlotte and Erica would be able to do so as well, of course; and Charlotte would be there when he and the others had gone back to school. But Charlotte must spend some holiday time with school age children; and Erica wanted time with other brothers and sisters too; and Randolph was sort of spare

So he might be a spare extra big person for Veronika.

And she would not really have any problems by the time she got to school; Randolph had absolute faith in the inability of the English public to remember anything in detail and was absolutely certain that by the time Veronika was eleven, most people would have forgotten how long Lucius had been married to Tanjela and would just assume Veronika was the oldest half goblin child of that union not Cosmo. And by then he, Randolph, might even be teaching art at Hogwarts. Unless Mr Malfoy chose to send her to Prince Peak to nurture her talent with others of like ability. Doubtless he would leave that decision to Veronika when she was both settled enough and old enough to make such a decision. And perhaps he, Randolph, should teach in a foreign school like Jade Snape's school in order to nurture talent abroad. And it was almost scary that he was now to be in the sixth, with eight good OWLs – well seven good ones and a relieving pass in potions – and in two more years he WOULD be out in the world earning his own way. And Erica was already to teach at Prince Peak – she being a year above him and her intended, Ming Chang to teach metalwork – so that school was not an option. Somehow it seemed unfair to take the skill to Hogwarts; which was academically prestigious but not a specialist school like Prince Peak.

Well he was more than capable of making his way as an artist; he had received a commission from the dour Alastor Moody to paint each of his aurors because he had suggested that if they were killed in the commission of their duty then a portrait could make an almost immediate report of that and anything else relevant to help catch whoever had killed them; and might then be available to give advice to young aurors. Moody had been very pleased at such an attitude of constant vigilance – and, as Gorbrin whispered to Randolph, constant pessimism – and had charged the boy with the immediate task of starting on a portrait of each beginning with the craziest.

That would keep him busy and in good pay for years; the ministry of justice might not pay much by the standards of collectors or those who wanted family portraits; but it was ample for his needs and steady work. Especially as the Wizgamot were making overtures to have dead members available as advisory bodies.

Randolph need not fear unemployment.

And too he might offer preparatory lessons to those hoping to enter Prince Peak; and with other work he could turn down spoilt treasures with all the talent of a poodle.

oOoOo

Randolph was a little taken aback to be included in the guests at the odd party the Malfoys hosted; Lucius and his girls did the social rounds at other dinner parties and balls of course; Lucius liked to keep in touch and reckoned his four wives constituted about the best spy force any man could have. He was probably right. And at parties in Malfoy manor plenty of juvenile trainee spies eavesdropped enthusiastically on conversations not meant for them just because so many people ignored or forgot the presence of children; and because it was fun. And held a more serious purpose; Lucius was determined that he would do all he could to stop any resurgence of goblin coursing or muggle baiting, and keeping a finger on the social pulse was one way to do this. And one of Randolph's tasks, together with Erica, was to draw all the chauffeurs and ostlers and too the personal servants of those who stayed overnight just in case any of them were characters who might be identified as shady characters by Lucius' own team of shady characters.

At one such party, Randolph was pleased to run into Angelica Hellibore, a blood sister and late of Prince Peak having done a year there in post NEWT study.

"Angelica! What are you doing at a bun fight?" asked Randolph tactlessly.

"Being a debutant of course, idiot!" said Angelica. One did not stand on ceremony with marauders.

Randolph hooted in derision.

"YOU? A Debutant? What ARE your parents thinking of? If they want you to get married they should pick some unsuspecting boy who hasn't met you and get the ceremony over before he realises what he's let himself in for!"

He returned himself to the correct shade, retrieved his eyebrows from where they were buzzing around his head and returned the tentacles to fingers.

"Rotten brat" said Angelica amicably "To think you're actually in the sixth, you and the other three – it's a wonder Severus hasn't resigned in horror!"

"He thought about it!" laughed Randolph. "All right; I'll bite; why a debutant?"

"My parents think it only fair to me that I should have a year of parties and meeting the right people" said Angelica gloomily "I TOLD them I already know the right people; they're good sorts you know, but they can't quite see that I might actually RATHER have a career than a well connected husband."

"_With fingers in dozens of different pies_" sang Randolph with more or less accuracy.

"Well I ain't Evita" said Angelica recognising the reference. "Of course Lucius could give lessons to both Peróns in chicanery but at least he's scrupulous, well kinda sorta. And you know, knowing a selection of Malfoys, and Sev, and – well blood group people – I sort of know everyone of real importance; and I'm not going to marry out of group. I MISS being at school already; it's sort of uncomplicated."

"Well why don't you just butt out of the whole thing and go ask Jade for a job with her roving team of healers?" said Randolph "She was talking at the Symposium and I was earwigging – as you do – and she's stolen the potions master from Durmstrang because he's married a half goblin woman and adopted her daughter, and the daughter's starting Prince Peak this term; and his wife is a potioneer too and is going to be going on roving commissions to heal poverty stricken people. And if she had someone who was fully human with an apparating licence I guess that would make life easier; and you HAVE specialised in medical transfiguration and chanting as well as also being a rather good potioneer yourself."

"It's a thought" said Angelica "Dad talked me out of making an application to St Mungo's and they do like to have their trainee healers in with the academic year."

Randolph made a rude noise.

"I rather fancy that this last year made you up to a rather better trained healer than most of their staff" he said "They're STILL suspicious of chanting there, the old fuddy duddies. You want to get out and DO, put right things the way Jade put your back right, not listen to the theory of the accepted wisdom of a hundred years out of date. You re-took your Transfiguration, didn't you?"

"Yes, I pulled up to an 'O'" said Angelica proudly. "Got over my odd blind spots. I didn't bother to retake chanting but I feel more confident; and an 'E' is respectable enough. Especially if you back it with experience."

"Well then!" said Randolph "And what's more as it's something Jade is passionate about, you can kind of pass on what she did for you, can't you?"

"I can" said Angelica. "I'll write to her first; just to check she can use me! Then I can put it to my parents that it IS an obligation that needs fulfilling. You Muggle Marauders got moderately clever in your old age."

"I love you too!" grinned Randolph.

oOoOo

The last part of the holiday was taken up with a meeting with the examinations board, headed by Madam Marchbanks, to approve the curriculum and level of complexity for the art exam.

This was to cover Charlotte being approved as an examiner as well as to approve the examination; and Randolph explained with great patience that the looseness over the practical aspects of the exam were because one could not define an artist as better than another for having a different style, any more than one might so define a musician; since some people even admired Celestina Warbeck, and one had to grant her points for being able to hit the notes she did, even if you might rather that she did not.

"She WAS rather self opinionated as a girl too" murmured Griselda Marchbanks. "How then may an examiner judge whether a piece is of a required level?"

"There is more to it than a level of complexity that one may look for in the metalworking exam" said Charlotte "Because sometimes a simple piece of art made up of three or four lines after a great deal of meditation as to how to accomplish the effect may have more merit than one that has a lot of complexity and no verve to it. For example" she got out two paintings "This is a highly worked painting of a street scene in Diagon Alley by some maiden aunt of Lucius'; it's accurate and the people mill about, but oh! So stiffly; poor old dear she tried too hard I think. And then there is this one Lucius bought me from an auction; it's Japanese" and she exhibited a watercolour painting on silk of a sparrow and plum blossom; and though there were but a few lines to define the sparrow it fluttered about the delicate blossom, twittering and pecking at the caterpillar that wriggled on the spray.

"EXQUISITE!" declared Madam Marchbanks "I quite take your point my dear; one has to look for a certain something. Such that the first painting would grade 'A' for being accurate but lacking life – dear me, that child skipping would trip over if she was doing it that way in real life – and this would grade 'O'?"

"Quite so" said Charlotte "Though this is so far above an 'O' grade even at NEWT level that I must mention it! I might grade the first at 'E' at OWL level because it has a number of excellent features; if done by a youth. It is a meritorious piece but not outstanding. At NEWT it would scrape an 'A' providing it was adequately backed up with sketches and so on. And I would grade THIS above it, for having the liveliness even if the technique is still untrained" and she presented a sketch of children playing; it was rough and some of the distant figures were little more than matchstick figures but there was so much life in it.

"Is this from one of the pupils of Prince Peak then?" asked Madam Marchbanks.

"No, it is from the seven year old little girl Lucius and I have adopted" said Charlotte calmly. "She picked up the concept of moving pictures very readily; she needs much help to develop her talent but it is considerable."

"She is better than me" said Erica. "But one can pick that out in early years. However, not all artists produce something representative; it is equally valid to grade art that is abstract with some emotional effect within it; or those who produce patterns such as may also be used to create spell effects. A valid piece would be a carven frame for a mirror that casts grooming spells on whoever looks in it to remove smuts and sort out the hair according to the chosen hairstyle. Or even a painted frame for that matter" she added. "Or just a complex pattern that has some other use, or a woven curtain, or meticulously planned embroidery, with a draught excluding charm woven into or embroidered on to it; so many possibilities that cannot be set in stone but only judged on individual merit. The test would be for whether the art or craftwork is executed to a standard of sufficient technical excellence; and what magic it included; and was there too a level of wow factor. You can't easily say what that might be, and really the big pieces ought to be marked by an artist and a couple of non-artists for the fact that different people like different things and art is most awfully subjective."

The exam board were nodding.

"Personally I loath the portrait of Phineas Nigellus in the Ministry building" said Tofty "And not merely because of the subject matter; I find the style of the artist rather…..affected."

"Very eighteen eighties" agreed Erica. "Makes me think of that aesthetic fellow in Gilbert and Sullivan so I always sing the recitative about languid lilies when I pass it by; sends Phineas Nigellus almost apoplectic."

There was a quick burst of coughing from the exam board.

"One might have less savoury hobbies than making Phineas Nigellus apoplectic I suppose" said Randall Hopkirk dryly. "He can be irritating; dear me, I shall remember that next time his portrait harangues me."

"Randall dear!" said Madam Marchbanks.

He grinned at her unapologetically.

And then the course was approved; and Randolph was to take the OWL in this, his lower sixth, year; with the NEWT along side his other NEWTs; and Erica was to plunge directly into the NEWT with her other four NEWTs she would take at the end of this academic year to have the qualification to teach with. She had, after all, been working on her art quite hard in devising the exam; and had set about producing a large exam piece to exhibit. It was also a commission from Fred and George Weasley now doing well enough to afford such things as family portraits; and they wanted to give their mother the gift of a portrait of her brothers who were killed by deatheaters in the first wizarding war. Erica was working from photos owned by members of the Order of the Phoenix, those belonging to Molly that the twins had filched, and memories in the Pensieve from such people as Lucius – for convenience – and Albus Dumbledore. And Fabian and Gideon were taking shape very nicely and were not sure whether to find it a laugh or be outraged that they were being painted by a Malfoy with hair as red as any Weasley; and were being brought up to date by Erica as she finished them off and began work on the background while they complained that they could hardly be expected to move much with so little background to move in.

Erica just smiled and ignored any complaints; portraits were such critics!

And yet….

No, she would commence another piece for her exam piece so that she could give the finished portrait to Molly as soon as possible; and it would be an official portrait for the school of Cosmo Malfoy, to hang in the Astronomy room where he taught; and some reference to Draco because of them sharing a birthday. Erica nodded; more suitable for an exam piece.

And Randolph planned to use his portrait of the still very much alive Draco Malfoy for his OWL piece.

It was going to be a busy year!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Irmi Luytens had permitted herself a brief, hard snog with her Sebastian as they met at the Zurich train station; then they had parted to be properly dignified upper sixth prefects.

"I have three more brothers and a sister" said Irmi.

"Jade's had quads? Lumme, that's a bit extreme!" said Sebastian "I didn't feel it happening; I would have helped, you know!"

Irmi laughed.

"Oh, they're all adopted; still a bit extreme, but that's Jade for you. Ulvik is starting her school this year, he's eleven; and he could have come here to Prince Peak but dad and Jade want him to be settled into being their son; the others will come here, and I guess Ulvik might transfer. Rainer's nine and very musical; and Rory seems like to be as well by his Malfoy lines, he and Lily are much of an age with Ralph. Rory was named Roderick by Ulvik; nearly after his real dad, Rory's a goblin too. Lily is a half goblin. In the orphanage they only had numbers unless they survived to five and could be set to work, so Jade – as I'm sure you could already guess – stole the entire state orphanage and relocated it on the Von Strang estate, creamed off the academics for her school and is arranging wholesale apprenticeship style teaching for the rest as well as ruthlessly mixing human and goblin children together. It HAS stopped her making quite so many broody noises having an effective set of three year old triplets" she added.

Sebastian laughed.

"How like Jade!" he commented. "What sort of mix are we getting this year?"

"The grown ups for post NEWT are already there under their own steam" said Irmi. "We have three new ones in the lower sixth, one into the third who's a cousin of our Schiffs from another branch whose half sister was at Durmstrang and who is the result of a man Jade calls gaping-gusset Gustav; and a dozen first years."

"Jade usually manages apposite insults" grinned Sebastian. "Thirteen in the third then; unlucky for some, but any third year is unlucky for their current prefects."

oOoOo

Those children who were more or less in residence at the castle emerged onto the platform to wait for their fellows, which included some of the new first. Irmi of course knew Paul Ingate, Fyra gan Neric. Alrik gan Torik and Reaz Breuer; and had met Zhenga Rebet when her stepfather had moved to Jade's castle with his family shortly before Irmi returned to school. Indeed Irmi had helped see her, Fyra and Alrik and Paul around Diagon Alley; Anett Breuer had taken her next protégé Reaz as well as the older ones for their books.

"There are going to be two new ones we don't know yet, Irmi" said Fyra. "Because we met Bertha Jorkins and Lydia Grant and Bruno Accola and they'll come with their own big people; and we also met Wilhelm Schmitt and Serrik gan Torgar and the Ferret will doubtless bring them. There's a Swedish boy who's an artist and a boy from Somewherestan."

"Well I daresay you will all be kind to them" said Irmi. "Ah, I recognise Mungo Fraser; Mungo, good to meet you properly."

Mungo shook hands.

"Well if dad had to be made Headmaster of Hogwarts, at least Albus had the courtesy to make it be between OWLs and NEWTs that he retired" he said. "I DO hope he doesn't suffer too much from being Lilith'd; she and her friends are quite the most outrageously inventive marauders I think the school has ever had."

"I don't care; I'm not a prefect there!" laughed Irmi.

Mungo brightened.

"Nor am I" he said. "I was quite surprised to get a prefect's badge for here though; I'll work hard to get to know people and justify Severus' faith in me."

"You OUGHT to be remembering he's Professor Snape with small jugs flapping their ears" said Irmi severely.

"I'll do my best then; sorry" said Mungo. He had never really known Severus much as a teacher at Hogwarts, having been a first year when he had departed for Prince Peak; Severus was a neighbour who stood in place of a father for his own adoptive father. He would adapt.

oOoOo

Next to arrive was Prudence, waiting for the German girl she hoped to befriend and help; she stayed to chat to Irmi while Sebastian shooed the boisterous first years through the barrier and out of the way. People started arriving; the now three Grant girls arrived with their newest member Lydia who was, Emily boasted, another luminary of school quidditch in the making, which claim merely made small Lydia comment that she so was looking forward to seeing stuck up and racist local teams get trounced by her sister's team with goblins playing. The Accola girls turned up with their small brother who hastened to find his cronies while Roseli stood on one leg and held forth about the new art exam and how she was looking forward to taking it. Leneli, as befitted a new prefect, displayed more dignity and hurried on through the wall.

Then a tall, gangling Germanic girl approached.

"Will you be Frieda Verwirreman?" asked Irmi.

The girl frowned.

"I – no" she said.

Irmi looked at her askance; for a moment there she had almost thought the girl was going to claim that she was; which was odd.

"You are surely not Johanna Schiff?" Irmi could not believe it; Johanna was thirteen.

"My name is…Hermeli Schmitt. If you have a list and I am not on it, your list must be faulty" said the girl.

"I don't think that's likely unless you applied right at the last minute; Professor Snape is meticulous to a fault" said Irmi. "Look, if you're trying to gatecrash because you're defecting from Durmstrang or think Beauxbatons is dippy or something, I guess you don't need to lie about it; we can sort that out later, providing you can actually pass the exam proper to your age. Though if you're a lower sixth not upper I guess it wouldn't matter; the lower are NOT academic. They're the last year of intake from when it was Cackle's academy; most of us uppers are transfers or otherwise acquired. Except Emily who makes up for a less academic approach in her sports; and you know we do train Quidditch as a talent as well as art and music. Are you artistic or musical? Is that why you're coming at the last minute for the sixth?"

"Well you are a most nosy little girl!" said the girl sounding amused.

Irmi frowned.

"I am an upper sixth; and being over seventeen I am an adult. You wear the school colours though your uniform is not correct so you are not a research student; rather, unless you DO enter the upper sixth, should I call YOU a little girl. I am too a prefect and trusted as train monitor to be sure we get the correct children on board; and you are not on my list. I would suggest that you answer a few questions or I may be forced to exclude you from the train and send someone to investigate why you try to gate crash. Do you leave another school for ideological grounds?"

"No; I have never been to boarding school. I wish the superior education in the sixth form" said Hermeli.

"You have no kit with you; as a new girl you must have the correct kit" said Irmi. Hermeli shrugged.

"It is all in my trunk" she said.

"You carry your CAULDRON in your TRUNK?" said Irmi "Or is it that you take not Potions to NEWT, although it is the most famous skill taught at Prince Peak? I don't believe you're even a witch, I think you're a muggle; and for a small child to gatecrash may be reasonable enough but for a big girl who must be almost adult is rather odd without good reason."

Hermeli had produced a knife from her pocket.

"Listen, little girl, I do not want to hurt you but I MUST be on your train and hidden; I am ill and I cannot live in gaol. Now be a good girl and show me to the right platform and stop silly fairy stories about witches."

"You'll have trouble hurting anyone with that" said Irmi calmly, staring at the knife. Hermeli's eyes dropped to it and widened in horror as Irmi transfigured it into a rose in a silver holder. "If you are a criminal I do not want you anywhere near our children; and I suggest you leave before I take further steps."

"Dear God!" whispered Hermeli. "You really ARE a witch; help me, please, just hide me! My real name is Therese Appeltrath; you must have read in the newspapers about the bank robbery?" her fear was real; and not just of what Irmi had done to her knife that she was staring at in more wonder than fear.

"I don't read muggle papers much" said Irmi "Besides I have not been in Switzerland for months, since last term. Why should I hide a thief as you imply that you are?"

"I helped them because I needed the medical fees" said Therese. "And after we divided the spoils one of the thieves got caught for boasting and being careless; but it was mentioned in the bank and I pleaded headache – which I get so many of – and went out, and instead of going home I emptied my account and bought clothing like I saw schoolchildren wear that is like the Chalet School of the English stories and I came to hide."

"WELL!" said Irmi "That's a pretty pickle you got yourself into; but I have used legilimensy on you and I see you speak truth, though you did not mention that you were also happy to help the robbers because your immediate boss is a sour old cow and the under manager has made noises that you could be away from her as his secretary if you only made him happy; I can see your temptation. And Professor Snape believes in second chances. You may go onto the train but you shall find a compartment at the far end and shut yourself in it; it is one of the prefect compartments. If any question you, Irmi Luytens told you to go to that compartment because you have been ill and need rest. Now get through that wall."

"I don't quite understand" said Therese.

Irmi sighed, looked for a small person and whistled.

"Conrad Grailsquest! Come and do your good deed for the day; please to take Miss Appeltrath through the barrier and install her in a prefect compartment; be nice to her she has been ill and has…. family trouble" she added. "You may come out again to collect sundry cronies."

Conrad grinned; he had spent the holiday looking virtuous by having had a rather good school report to show sceptical relatives who did not believe he would ever regain the use of magic after his traumatic experience; who had too peered in wonderment at where Severus had totally chanted away the horrific burn scar; and he was waiting to tell his friends all about it and gloat. He led Therese firmly by the hand through the wall, ignoring her cry of horror and subsequent gasp of wonder as she found herself on a railway platform with a big brown Bayer-Garret steam engine. The sound of a small boy's raised voice made itself heard above the chatter of others and the hiss of steam.

"I say, Conrad! I'm adopted now, I'm officially a Snape but I'm keeping my surname too! But I have a family!"

Conrad waved and grinned at his chum.

"GREAT NEWS, SIEGFRIED NOW-SNAPE!" he yelled "GOT A SIXER TO DUMP ON THE REST, CATCH UP WITH YOU!"

Therese shuddered, small boys were very loud and unrestful; especially the two having a – was it a WAND duel? Fortunate that another big boy, very handsome and very black, should be advancing on them as they shouted such things as 'have at thee, varlet' – whatever that meant, her English was shaky – and – good grief! They were both hoisted into the air to dangle by an ankle!"

"Crumbs, Darryl's waxy" said Conrad.

"Excuse, 'waxy'?" said Therese.

"Cross" translated Conrad. "I say your English is a little poor" he switched to German "They DID warn you we have a trilingual policy here, didn't they?"

"Er, I do speak some English and French" said Therese.

"Oh well, doing two days a week having all your lessons in each language does wonders for picking it up" said Conrad.

Darryl Zabini was busy explaining to Emil Villeneuve and Crow Langstaffe that he had spoken to them before about stray spell effects and if they wanted to duel there were times and places for that as they were so fond of gallantry and futile gesture they might take their choice of Tolkein's 'Erranty' or 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson by the end of the first week if they pleased.

This meant even if they didn't please but prefects were supposed to be polite when tearing people off a strip so the possibility of using sophistry was discarded before it began; Darryl Zabini could get a lot more creative than a single poem rep if they decided they did NOT please; and it was besides a fair cop. They wandered off discussing the relative merits of a longer poem like the Light Brigade over the long and complex archaic words in 'errantry'.

oOoOo

For Irmi's peace of mind a rather shyer looking Germanic maiden turned up accompanied by parents.

"Ah, YOU'LL be Frieda Verwirreman" said Irmi. "Meet Pru" she added as the girl nodded "She'll be in your class; good sort Pru."

Prudence grinned.

"Professor Snape told me all about you, Frieda, and as I have no especial friend – the other two girls in our class have a kind of alliance of similar interests but none of us are CLOSE friends – he thought you might like to be my friend and I can show you around and heave you off to see an appropriate professor if you haven't liked to pipe up in class over missing any point" she said. "I'm not especially academic I'm afraid but I'll do my best to help out all I can; and there's a big class taking care of domestic beasts, six of us with Mungo Fraser transferring from Hogwarts, mind he's supposed to be taking both care of beasts exams because he likes animals; Muriel is too. She's all right. Well both the other girls are all right; Leneli gets a bit on her high horse about equality from time to time but she's not as loud as she was because most of what she was demanding is happening anyhow. There's six of us taking potions too – slightly different six – because it IS one of the things the school is famous for; Professor Snape is just the works! It's a really big class now I'm afraid with three new ones this year, there'll be twelve of us."

"OH! But that is so nice and small; in Durmstrang I was in a class of thirty one!" said Frieda. "I will like to meet the others too, yes?"

"I'll take you in; Leneli's certainly here – you can't miss the hair – and I think I saw a cage full of nifflers preceding some struggling creature that almost had to be Muriel" said Prudence "The Lowther Twins are always early and Randolph virtually lives at school if he doesn't have to go home; he has dippy parents" she explained. "You must be very glad yours are supportive; Professor Snape says that there's no such thing as a problem child only problem parents."

She went off, talking nineteen to the dozen to Frieda while Irmi smiled and assured the girl's parents that every effort would be made to help Frieda to achieve as much as she could, and explained that she was in for a treat as the castle had a young pet griffon, who was the daughter of the previous school Griffon, Godrica, who had insisted on returning to Hogwarts with her beloved David Fraser now he was headmaster there. Godrica's daughter had been named, in rather undignified fashion, Tibbles; which she answered to. And really, it was no worse than calling a three-headed hound 'Fluffy'.

Or, for that matter, the school leopard being known as 'Stripy'.

oOoOo

The young man who had to be Marius Schreiber turned up shortly thereafter and was directed through the wall by Irmi. He was very excited and told Irmi how he was looking forward to a big school with many teachers and a full range of subjects.

"It's not that big a school" said Irmi "We have one huge class with sixteen in, that's the fifth; most classes have around a dozen pupils give or take. The Upper sixth is smallest with eight; which is nice but almost below viable numbers."

"Oh but in the school I have been in, eight in one age group would have been a big class!" assured Marius. "And we should only have four ZP's available had not my great grandfather offered free his services to take an exam class in history. And ZHs are gained by working on your own!"

"Well I guess that's better than no education; and five subjects is a fairly decent core" said Irmi "You are training to be an Anwalt for my stepmother; I expect she will see to helping out that school to expand."

"Yes; she said it should have a defence against the dark arts teacher so people learn to deal with boggarts" said Marius earnestly "And this she has drilled me in."

"Good" said Irmi "It IS important!"

oOoOo

The new first had picked Paul Ingate as their official welcomer of the two they had not met; and he grinned at Wilhelm and Serrick as they arrived with Herzog Von Frettchen seeing their luggage brought by a couple of elves behind them.

"Cor, you ARE a pair of spoilt babies having your stuff brought for you not using trolleys like everyone else" said Paul "Better not do that if there's anyone watching you will SO get teased about being precious darlings."

"Is it not done then? I will tell Eduard for another time" said Wilhelm. "He said it is proper to do this for school."

"Yes, but then the spawn of Durmstrang ARE precious little darlings" said Paul

"MMmm, TACT" murmured Von Frettchen to Irmi.

"True though" said Irmi "We do NOT encourage the concept of being precious; we house a number of geniuses here and Paul is one of them: he's a very fine artist. And we don't let them think that their extraordinary talent in any way excuses them from behaving like decently ordinary people. And your two are, as I have heard rumour, hoping to be Marauders; and frankly no marauder would ever want to be taken as precious."

"I'll make them push their own trolleys next time and put up with being scolded by my elves then" said Von Frettchen.

"Quite right too!" said Irmi.

oOoOo

The slight dark-skinned boy with Slavic cheekbones and slightly Mongoloid eyes came forward in the care of an obvious servant.

"I am Gabiden Kim" said the boy "You are a senior of the school, Prince Peak, please?"

"I am; I am Irmi Luytens and I am a prefect. I have heard of you through my step mother who knows your sister Saula" said Irmi. "This is Paul Ingate; he is a ward of the headmaster Professor Snape, and when the last expected first year arrives he will take you both onto the train and introduce you to the others."

"Ah? Thank you" said Gabiden. "How unfortunate for you to be an orphan er Herr Ingate; you must not feel bad about it."

"Oh I don't" said Paul "Actually I believe my father is still alive but he had issues with the wizarding world so Severus – Professor Snape I should call him in term time – arranged to confund muggle authorities to take on the lot of us. He'd probably have adopted us if we didn't have a living parent but I guess he's as much a dad to us as if we got to call him that. I'm the baby of the family so I have three others to live up to; which is the only thing I worry about. But I have a bit of a talent for art which is all my own so I feel less in their shadow. And I guess if Severus HAD adopted us I'd feel more in the shadow of his very talented children. Is your sister a high flyer?"

"Yes; we are all very proud of her" said Gabiden "And it is fortunate that the Princess is so pleasant, for in most classes my sister outperforms her; though she went only as lady in waiting. My sister thinks that she would not have liked to be at Durmstrang if Princess Zhanargul had not been there too, however, and there would be in this year a brother of a girl from Uzbekistan, technically a dominion of Kazakhstan, and the girl is not nice; so Saula thought that it was best for me to come here. I should of course have upheld the honour of our country in Durmstrang" he added hastily.

"More fun not to feel you have to though I should think" said Paul. "Well, I grew up here so I know everyone; I've been here longest of those who are either residents of the castle or part of the wizarding community surrounding it; Reaz Breuer lives in the village, him and his siblings and parents but he knocks around a lot with me."

"That sounds almost like a goblin name; he is then half goblin?" asked Gabiden.

"Reaz? He's fully goblin; but the family adopted the name of a patron" shrugged Paul "I think it was to protect them from Odessa or something. Anett Breuer – well, Bane now she's married – has gone to teach in the new school for those not eligible for Durmstrang. She taught here for a year and it might have put her off if she wasn't strong minded because she had the OWL students with the brownest thumbs in the world – she taught herbology" he explained. "I hope you aren't racist because the policies here are pretty strict."

"I do not THINK I am" said Gabiden "But I am not used to mixing with goblins and I will try not to feel prejudice."

"Well so long as you try, and if you say something unacceptable you apologise and say that you DO have to try, you can't do any more" said Paul sensibly "And if people know you are doing your best to fit in and learn that there really ISN'T any difference then no-one can censure you. And if you get called to book DO explain that it's because it's not what you're used to and you don't mean to be intolerant; the staff and prees – prefects that is – will go a long way to help."

And if Paul permitted a degree of patronising foreknowledge of how things were to creep into his voice, it was to meet the slightly patronising tone with which this boy had greeted him for being an orphan.

"What er, what class are you from?" asked Gabiden cautiously.

"Oh I shall be in the first, same as you" said Paul, deciding to deliberately misunderstand.

"Er I meant socially" said Gabiden. Paul stared blankly.

"Haven't a clue" he said "It isn't done for schoolchildren to take any notice of that sort of thing you know; bad form" he added. "This is a school for learning in, not for poncing and posing like Durmstrang."

Gabiden subsided, abashed.

He did not want to do anything that was not done; he would thereby dishonour his family.

Johanna Schiff turned up with a big sister; and Irmi greeted both cheerfully, recognising the older as one of Jade's students. Franziska recognised Irmi and greeted her cheerily and asked her to keep an eye on her sister.

Irmi looked at Johanna's determined little face and firm chin and smiled. "I will introduce you to Lucy Ingate, who is one of Severus' wards" she said "She will take you to the MSHG; and introduce you around. You look one who has the spirit to get a lot out of it; maybe Hette and Vava will invite you to maraud also; but that is to be seen. To maraud one must have a sense of justice and too of fun and be ready to lay aside your childhood to fight that others who are weaker have a childhood."

"That sounds what I believe in" said Johanna. "I want to put right the things that people like our father make wrong."

"Well, maybe I'll drop you directly on the twins then" said Irmi "Don't worry, Franziska; she'll be fine."

Franziska went off with a goblin who put an arm around her; and Irmi looked suspiciously at her thickening waist. Well SHE wasn't going to be welcome in her father's house long; but now her sister was at school that probably gave her more freedom to move; since her two younger sisters were under Jade's care at Schloss Adler, as Schloss Von Strang had been renamed. Irmi presented Johanna to Vava and Hette – who were with the older marauders in their group, the Bee Marauders – with the comment that they might have another marauder here. Marauders tended to take the recommendation of other blooded seriously; and if Irmi thought she felt right, she probably was right and Johanna got talked at by six people at once, enthusiastically.

oOoOo

The last one of the first who was expected arrived then in any case; Jöran Ulvaeus peered myopically on the world through his glasses to greet the two little boys.

"We'll take you to meet the rest now, Jöran" said Paul "It's a pity you couldn't make it to the party Von Frettchen threw but I'm sure you two will soon learn to know the rest of us and we, you. You're an artist too, I hear Jöran, so we have that in common."

"You are also an artist? Well it is good to have things to talk about" said Jöran. "I am very good of course and so I need a specialist school."

"Then I hope you find all you need" said Paul "But in an English school – which this is – it is not considered good form to mention your own talents with great praise; it is better to wait for others to exclaim spontaneously. I mention this because you do not want to be teased for what we call blowing your own trumpet."

"But should not one be honest about one's abilities? And if any tease I will report them!" said Jöran.

"Oh you're going to be a bundle of laughs then – not!" said Paul. "If you report for teasing, unless it becomes bullying, you so will get a great big ticking off from the staff for sneaking on something not worth sneaking over; teasing is a way of showing others that they have faults that can be improved. Being self important and showing off is one big fault and you should try to be more modest as becomes a kid of eleven like us. As well as being polite. And by the way I DO hope you realise that any artist has room for improvement because if you turn round and get in a huff if a constructive criticism is made of your work, you'd better not be rude to our visiting teacher because he does it for love not money and if he gets insulted the rest of us may lose his services. And Randolph's too busy as a sixth former to take on extra coaching."

"A TRUE artist needs no lessons; it flows from within" said Jöran loftily

"Well if you believe that pap you'll not even pass the exam when you're old enough; because there are things called techniques" said Paul "And even Leonardo da Vinci served his time as an apprentice; if you ARE that good, you might be able to learn some techniques for yourself but if you're not a red-hot enchanter too, how are you going to produce the magical effects with your art? I know some people have wild talents – Professor Prince has visions that he draws and Erica Malfoy can do transfigurations through drawing – but what about the discipline of pattern magic?"

"I am a figure artist; I know nothing of this pattern magic nor do I wish to" said Jöran.

"Then tell me" said Randolph Wright, who had overheard the last bit of this comment "What pray was the point of your parents sending you to a school that specialises in art only for you to steal from them – I pick the word with care – by neglecting to take advantage of the service for which they are paying?"

"And what do YOU know of art?" said Jöran.

Randolph counted to ten.

"Young man; I have co-written the text book for the exam class; and now I am good enough I make enough selling the paintings I can do in the holidays to pay my own school fees AND have enough to start to pay back my parents for sending me here for the last five years" he said with a deal of self control "And for being so infernally rude to a prefect in the way you spoke to me– my badge IS visible to you so you might be warned, even if you were so lost to manners as to be rude to a member of the sixth – you may write me twenty repetitions of 'Rudeness is abhorrent, and also counterproductive; it is better to think before you speak'. I'll have your lines before tea on Friday; gives you plenty of time."

Jöran stared.

"I'll REPORT you for trying to bully me!" he said.

Randolph stared.

"My good kiddie, are you for real?" he said "Report a prefect for setting a legitimate prefect punishment for your insolence? I rather fancy you have a rum idea both about bullying AND about what is acceptable amongst civilised folk; in a decent community, courtesy and manners are rather expected, especially towards those in authority. Do you perchance come from some backward community where it is considered acceptable to be rude to your elders and betters?"

"What makes you better then me then?" said Jöran. Other listening children gasped.

"My self control in speaking to you fair, for one" said Randolph "Eight OWLs with good grades for another; the fact that the head reposes in me the trust to make me a prefect for a third; which means, if you have somehow managed to lose the plot so entirely that you do not know what a prefect is, that I stand in place of a staff member when there is no staff member present; and that I have some authority over the discipline within the school; and the right to enforce school rules and set impositions of lines up to twenty repetitions or other punishment of similar severity as seems fit. Possibly too in the art world the fact that my work sells; one sale being worth twenty favourable critiques."

"Well I shan't do your stupid lines; you can't make me" said Jöran.

"Actually, I can; because if you refuse, you can be placed on head's report" said Randolph "And then he can increase your imposition for your further rudeness to me, and to him – because in being rude to ME as the head's representative, you are also being rude to HIM – and may even expel you as an intolerable nuisance and disruptive to the school."

"I surely can't be expelled for resisting bullying!" cried Jöran.

"Kid, you haven't been bullied" said Randolph.

"You haven't" said Adrian Petrescu grimly joining the knot of people about the Swedish boy "I went for a while to Durmstrang; I know bullying. It is when the big ones twist your arm up your back so far you think it is going to come out of the socket; or stand you on a table and fire stinging hexes at your bare legs; or make you stand for hours on a table until your bladder feels like it is going to burst and your legs are trembling with weakness; or cast the cruciatus curse on you."

"But that is a forbidden curse!" cried Jöran.

"Welcome to real bullying" said Adrian. "Tell me, lad, would you use so rude a tone to a teacher –what was it 'what do YOU know about art'? or question a teacher giving you a punishment if they felt your tone so rude?"

"But he isn't a teacher he's just another schoolboy!" said Jöran.

"Wrong you little idiot" said Adrian "He is, as I am, a prefect. One who – AS he has been at pains to explain to you – stands in place of a teacher with limited powers of discipline entrusted by the head. The HEAD expects him to be treated with respect; and any normal kid would do so for recognising that you don't get handed a badge saying 'prefect' if you aren't expected to take the responsibility that goes with that; and the few concomitant privileges. YOU HAVE BEEN RUDE TO THE HEADMASTER IN BEING RUDE TO HIS VEHICLE, YOU HORRID LITTLE BOY AND YOUR CLASSMATES WILL DESPISE YOU AS SCARCELY CIVILISED DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" he turned to Randolph "Sorry to butt in old boy, but he seemed incapable of listening to reason and rational explanation so I thought loud might work better."

"Oh we're all here to work together; no offence taken" said Randolph. It WAS rude for a prefect to usurp the discipline of another; but Randolph was utterly at his wit's end and was glad of Adrian's intervention.

"I shall then go to the head when we get to the school and ask if I am supposed to do lines set by another schoolboy because I am dubious of this" said Jöran "And if you are lying you will be in trouble for bullying me and shouting so rudely."

"Well what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!" said Adrian "You are so intolerably rude to others, it seems the only way to get your attention; and believe me, you will NOT enjoy the interview with the head!"

oOoOo

It might be pointed out that when Jöran went to see Severus to ask if he was supposed to do lines set by someone who called himself prefect, Severus had the whole story out of him and tore him verbally into shreds for calling one of his prefects and by inference himself a liar; by being rude to one of HIS representatives; for being generally so snotty as to talk in such a fashion to his elders; for having the cheek to use such a phrase as 'called himself a prefect' when everyone in the school knew who the prefects were and would hardly be likely to permit anyone to impersonate the same even if there was anyone so lost to shame as to do so and to accuse anyone of such dishonour did not speak highly of the honour of the accuser; and Jöran found that he would be writing not twenty but one hundred repititions of the lines, as well as writing apologies to both Randolph Wright and Adrian Petrescu in his best English for his rudeness to them, and another also in his best English to his classmates for bringing the year into disrepute by making the sixth wonder if this year's first were a bunch of guttersnipes dragged up in who knew what uncivilised society where even orang-utans would be ashamed to admit to coming from. Severus finally managed to get the point across that egalitarian did not refer to being familiar to the point of rudeness to seniors and staff; and told Jöran coldly that he had better learn better manners quickly or he would be returning to Sweden without the pearls of wisdom of the Head's cousin who would be teaching him.

Jöran tried complaining that with his short sight such an amount of writing would be harder on him than on other children; and dared not disobey when Severus snapped to him to take his glasses off. Severus stalked round him chanting and Jöran put his hands to his eyes as the pulling feeling caused him discomfort shouting that he would write home and complain.

"Complain?" said Severus maliciously "What's to complain about that I have cured your myopia? You have perfect twenty-twenty vision, Mr Ulvaeus; you have no excuse for not presenting all your impositions in beautiful handwriting on Friday. NOT that the same condition stopped Harry Potter performing quite adequately in school AND managing to see where to stick Gryffindor's sword in Voldemort. Now see that you do those lines; and just get out of my sight."

Jöran had stumbled out bemused; and realising that he could see perfectly well without his glasses was wondering how he was going to cope with the jostle of daily life when he could not tell on people for being rough near a boy with glasses.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Jöran Ulvaeus, having more or less guaranteed for himself that he was unlikely to be jostled or bullied by being invited into any games by the first who had decided to ostracise him as though he had something contagious , found himself largely ignored, which mostly suited him save that he had then nobody to show off his ability to because nobody cared.

"You will wish you had seen my early sketches when I am famous" he said loudly.

Reaz glanced over.

"Why then have you bothered to bring your early sketches?" he asked. "Is not the specialist teacher going to want to see what you are doing now?"

"This IS what I am doing now, you ignorant…"

"Careful" said Paul "Or I might have to report you for racism and bullying."

Jöran flushed.

"He is obviously ignorant however" he said.

"Well I know when perspective looks right and when people are drawn in proportion and when their joints articulate properly" said Reaz.

"I am but eleven years old; I am refining my style!" said Jöran.

"Funny how Paul's drawing do have almost working perspective and pretty good proportions and almost always articulate when he's only eleven and claims not to be good enough to have a style to refine" said Reaz.

Paul had to admit that though there was promise to Jöran's work it was very stilted.

"Huh, you know nothing" said Jöran "I should like to know who painted the leopard though; it is very good" he pointed to a framed watercolour of Stripy on the wall that dangled purring from a tree branch.

"It's one of mine" said Paul quietly "Thank you for the compliment."

"You LIAR!" gasped Jöran "A boy your age could not produce something that lifelike!"

"How DARE you?" Paul was sick of being pleasant to him "You will apologise for calling me a liar; or the entire form – because we'll tell the girls – will send you to Coventry, that is not talk to you or help you out in any way!"

"I will not retract! You cannot have painted that! Besides, it must have been painted from life; where would you see a leopard?"

"Usually in the Beech tree" said Reaz. "For the record to you five others; I watched Paul paint that; he was watching the school leopard sleeping and half falling off the branch as she went too deeply asleep; it's an inspired piece and the best he's ever done and I asked if we couldn't have it framed in our dorm. He's not as good as Randolph perhaps, but he has his moments."

Paul nodded; the realistic assessment of his friend pleased him more than empty ignorant praise because Reaz had gone to the trouble of learning what was good art and what was bad to be a true critic for Paul.

"This Rutabaga has no honour" said Gabiden.

"This howmany?" asked Paul.

"Excuse, I have the term wrong? I thought that he had a country that was the name in English of a root vegetable?"

"Swede" said Paul

"But Rutabaga is the American name for it; and I like it" said Wilhelm "He has as much artistic ability also as a rutabaga."

"He has raw talent in plenty" said Paul "But he has allowed himself to be so filled with pride from the extravagant and foolish expressions of admiration of family at an early age, I suspect, that he has stayed at the level of ability at which that praise began for he has convinced himself that he is already a boy wonder and has nothing more to learn. Sad, but it's his loss. I wager Professor Prince will sling him out of his class if he won't at least try and won't listen to constructive criticism. It's really in his hands and if you oiks have finished unpacking shall we go to supper? I want my food and I want to know who's head of the school and hoping none of the Pree's have had a brainstorm and elected Emily who's a great games captain but quite likely to schedule a match every weekend if she was head girl because the power might just go to her head."

"Oiks?" queried Serrik.

"Generic term for people; also types. Nothing derogatory involved" said Paul. "Like calling someone a baboon isn't necessarily insulting or at least not fighting words level of insulting, it's like calling someone silly."

"Thank you; our English slang still unlearned is" said Serrik.

"And I am fortunate to grow up in Austria so I am bilingual in slang; I'm deficient in French colloquialisms" said Paul "We can switch to German if you prefer?"

"Much nicer" said Wilhelm.

oOoOo

The Head called the school to order.

"It is my pleasure to announce the Head of School is Irmi Luytens" he said; and waited for the cheering to die down. Irmi was popular. "Her deputy is Darryl Zabini and though I appreciate the rest of the boys and their efforts I have to say he IS the least scatty of you" he went on.

Darryl grinned at Irmi.

"The head does surely know how to turn a backhanded compliment, doesn't he, oh glorious leader?"

"If you call me that as a matter of course I'll forget I'm head girl and evacuate your nostrils with flying mammals" said Irmi, smiling sweetly.

Darryl gave her a beautiful bow then did one for Severus as Irmi curtseyed deeply.

"I'll do my best to live up to those who have gone before me, Domine" said Irmi. "I have a proposal to make to the school if I may; that I was going to put to whoever was elected but as it's me it cuts out the middleman."

"Go ahead" said Severus.

"In Hogwarts school, Erica Malfoy is right now trying to raise interest in getting the pupils to help the Society to Aid Marginalised Females; by making things to personalise rooms in hostels for girls who have nowhere to go and no-one to look after them who want to avoid prostitution" said Irmi "And that's very laudable, but in Germany and I think actually on a lot of the continent the situation is worse. Especially for children of half blood; Jade's sort of stolen an orphanage a little bit – those of you who remember Jade Snape as head girl won't be all that surprised – and the half blood and more mixed blood kids are treated like criminals as a matter of course. I vote we put aside leisure time to help make life more pleasant for orphans with pretty things like patchwork quilts or painted boxes and stuff; anyway, I thought if we thought about it and anyone was interested we could do it" she said.

"I think it's a jolly good idea" said Darryl "Perhaps the artists in the school might do little paintings that make people feel good, of unicorns or something; and I wish now I'd studied metalcrafting when I had the opportunity in Hogwarts to make music boxes. You younger ones get to do that sort of thing from next year" he added. "Guess I'll stick to transfiguration to turn blocks of wood into boxes."

"Make the excess rabbit population in to slippers!" called out Rory, who liked gardening and who waged an ongoing war with rabbits.

"Talk sense, Jade would turn me inside out for upsetting bunnies; she'd rather they were honestly shot and eaten!" said Darryl.

"And before you get onto the peculiarity of Jade's moral code DO remember that her mum's sitting on the staff table" said Emily.

That conversation went no further; but there was a buzz of interest over making something nice for orphans.

"There is now a sewing room and a woodworking room" said Severus "As adjuncts to those who wish to pursue art, since the field is to be left deliberately broad. There is a loom in the sewing room and two small table looms. The craft rooms are not to be used unsupervised by those below the fourth; the junior and junior middles need a sixth former or staff member to supervise them. And any trouble arising from unsupervised use by older students will mean a review of the privileges as a whole. I can't see that children of fourteen and above OUGHT to need supervising with simple tools; but I add a further stipulation that the lathes are only to be used with two or more people present. Nasty accidents CAN happen with chisels on rapidly rotating machinery. We have a local turner who will be giving lessons on the weekends; and Madam Malfoy will teach any who want to learn to use the sewing machines."

"Machines for sewing? Is it a new invention sir?" asked Prudence.

"Not at all my dear; but we now own a factory in which we can copy the clever hand-cranked and foot-powered machines invented by muggles something over a hundred years ago before they used electricity for anything more than sending messages" said Severus "And the treadle lathes are based on the same principle. I thought that hobby rooms would be a nice idea, as well as the equipment being available for more esoteric expressions of artistic endeavour, no Mr Lowther, the idea of turning a certain person on a lathe and then sewing sundry things to him is NOT a worthy thought for someone your age even in jest. You may write me the entire of 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' because I know you don't like it. Lord! and then I have to trawl through it AND in your handwriting" he added in disgust. "I rather thought that some of you lads might have a go at making your own wizarding chess sets; and using enchanting classes to get them enchanted."

"Brilliant!" said Siegfried, eyes shining.

"Well someone is happy" said Severus. "Well it is good to have you all back; I hope it will be a productive term. We have our furthest flung pupil yet in the person of Gabiden Kim from Kazakhstan; and I have a packet of chocolate frogs for the first junior who can draw on a blank map where Kazakhstan is; there are blank world maps in a pile outside my office and a box for your entries and a pencil to mark your efforts and – most important – put your name on. In the event of a tie I shall buy more chocolate frogs but you are NOT to confer nor ask Gabiden. If you have done so already you will score for having the courtesy and interest to ask. Gabiden, to make it fair, I've a few chocolate frogs for you as you may obviously NOT compete."

Gabiden gave a shy grin; this was not what he thought school would be like, but as Saula said nobody at Durmstrang had any idea where they came from this was a constructive way of remedying the matter in the English school!

And juniors crowded round for blank maps as soon as supper was over!

It might keep them occupied over the weekend until lessons proper started!

oOoOo

The children of the first broke up into four distinct groups; the would-be marauders, consisting of Zhenga, Fyra, Wilhelm, Serrik, Bruno and Alrik; the other girls, which was Bertha and Lydia; Paul, Reaz and Gabiden who was getting over his lack of knowledge of goblins by reflecting that Reaz had more dignity and class of manner than such as Jöran; and Jöran who formed a group of one in solitary and ostracised splendour. He was the only one who did not turn out for the MSHG; and Gabiden was prepared for this because his sister had told him how the English devised boring sounding societies to fool dark wizards that made no end of difference to your performance in school. Gabiden was keen; and he was also quick, and rapidly took the message that showing off was not considered good class, and that went for social prominence as much as any talent. He told his friends that at home it was considered proper to make boast about your family and how prominent they were because this was a way of proving that you were fit to stand for any office, to speak of the deeds of ancestors and claim how true their blood ran in you.

"That's cool" said Reaz "Different people have different ways; Germans feel a need to show off a Von in their name if they have it; it's all the same thing. The English reckon that you should be able to tell how good class a man is by his modest manner and the way he speaks. And many who do not understand this underestimate Professor Snape because he is quiet in manner, and who is a close friend of most of the High Council and related to significant numbers of them too one way or another. Until you go out of your way to hack him off; then he is truly awesome in his rage, beginning with the opening salvos of vocabulary and building to a crescendo of insult that usually makes enemies go for their wand and then he defeats them without word or wand in a non fatal and humiliating way just to show he can. And he is also brave enough that he pretended to be Voldemort's ally for years, knowing that a false move would bring his horridly painful death while the dark items that are sort of only glossed over what they are in the game got found for real to stop Voldemort becoming immortal; and don't ask me about them because I don't know, only what I've overheard. I s'pose" he came up for air as he thought about it "In England, there are certain names that are just the works; Malfoy, Potter, Weasley, Prince – which is to say too Snape – and such. Black's another. Which mean more than Von. Only when they reformed the government they could have crowned Harry Potter as prince and his closest followers Lord and the people would have taken it; but he's just Mr Potter and so is everyone else just 'Mr'. It's like the English think that too many titles are a bit vulgar; mind you after LORD Voldemort and Prince Gerhardt I suppose one can see why; when it's an old title – like your princess – that's all right because it's sort of tradition. But new titles are like if you say you're good at art people will think you are a bit full of it."

"I think he's summed up the British fairly well" said Paul. "And I'm sorry I got rather cross with you wanting to know what my class is. And actually I really don't know; or care. I have a skill that will pay my way as an artist, or I will be able to teach; I have a brother who's a potioneer; actually he's a quality tester with the ministry; my next brother's taking OWLs this year and he's thinking of becoming a quidditch coach; and Lucy is only in the third and is torn between being a healer and marrying someone with really cool flying horses. Girls, you know" he added. "I guess Severus would always find something for us to do here if we couldn't get a job but it's nice to be independent. Life is what you make of it; and Mr Lucius Malfoy, for all his wealth, was as miserable as could be when he was under a compulsion by Voldemort who made it so he couldn't show his own son that he loved him because Voldemort was such a little tyke that he could not bear for anyone to be important to one of the people he tricked into following him except himself. And Lucius Malfoy is exceptional because he's one of the few who realised it was a trick and broke away; so that he was happier in the same fear of discovery as Severus because it gave him the love of his son back than he had been since he was thirteen when Voldemort put his first compulsions on him. Even kids are not safe from dark wizards. And I guess that's another reason for the British not to be effusive; being cautious until you know people is safer. And when they go out of their way to throw back any attempts to explain how it's done in your face and drop into a big dose of poor prunery it makes us back off no end."

"For such a show of er, poor prunery it is enough to make anyone back off" said Gabiden. "One who whines for authority over every minor reverse is a sad and cowardly thing and one who accuses others of lying surely has no honour himself that he sees in others but a reflection of his own sad soul."

"I say! That's a jolly good way of putting it" said Paul.

They had escaped Jöran by convening in a box room – it was raining – because the marauders had taken over the attics looking for secret passages. The furry model of the painting that had started the trouble was lying on her back between them purring and demanding tummy rubs; and Paul had explained to Gabiden that she had been given the disposition of a domestic cat when Jade Snape had produced her for her Transfiguration NEWT only the thing was that when she had enough of being tickled, she might have a pussycat sized disposition but she still had leopard sized paws and claws and you had to watch out. Stripy knew to be gentle; Jade had trained her. But gentle in a big cat could still be a nasty bruise and a laceration. Only Flo Visick was permitted to take real liberties with Stripy and might be found burying her face in the big cat's tummy as a good night ritual; as it was on Flo's bed that Stripy slept for preference.

Unless she wanted a change when she would sit outside the dormitory she had chosen and sing until she was let in, which as her volume was considerable was usually fairly quickly.

oOoOo

Zhenga was a very happy little girl; she was getting an education! Well she would be when lessons started. And nobody stared at her at all; neither humans nor goblins. And she was going to be a marauder; and her dad had told her something about it because he had been told a bit; and it would involve blood magic. Only it was good blood magic and was not scary but wonderful. And she would too be answering in class with a real surname; because she had a daddy and he was the best daddy in the world and he and mummy were going to get her more little brothers and sisters than their darling baby girl too because mummy was happy and that was the best. And she Zhenga had friends who were friends because they wanted to be friends, not because they wanted something; and they were a mix of human, goblin and half goblin; and it didn't matter what they were because they were people first. And they had all pooled ideas about pranks to play and then decided that they would be better once they had learned a little more; though Wilhelm HAD shared the dirigible fart curse with them and the fluorescent fart curse and he told them that their very own charms teacher, Professor Parnassus had invented it when she was at school because Frau Baronin Von Luytens had told him!

Frau Baronin Von Luytens had taught Zhenga as well as Fyra and Alrik the Shield charm that was cast without word or wand; and something called the bat bogey hex. And they had entered the competition to guess where Gabiden came from – which was a long way east of Hungary, Zhenga knew that much – and now they were knocking on panels and poking around chimney breasts in the hopes of finding secret passages.

It was as good a way to spend a wet Sunday as any; and the important thing was they were doing it together!

oOoOo

It had not taken long for the Bee Marauders to decide that the passionate and just little spirit of Johanna Schiff was perfect for their group and they held a blooding without ado. After all, as Yrdl said, why wait?

And Johanna grinned at Hette and Vava. She had been ready to like goblin children because if her father despised them it was a good reason to feel the opposite; and anyone could see that Gennic was just crazy about wonderful Franziska and wanted to care for her. And now she had goblin blood kin – and elves she realised – whose blood sang with hers and were no different.

They fell to discussing the new layer aspiring to maraud; and declared them a game seeming bunch who would bear watching and would probably do.

"Especially as Fyra and Alrik are already blooded so Jade could protect them" said Yrdl.

"Well they'll have picked people who felt right then" said BaHH. "Pass the pumpkin juice."

oOoOo

The Bee Marauders felt they should celebrate such joint events as welcoming a new member and starting a new term – indeed year – with some kind of jollification or jape. It was now five years since Prince Peak had become Prince Peak – well, it would be later in the school year – and BaHH pointed this out.

"It's also a whole holidays worth since we had the opportunity to get together and plot" said Batty. "I say, nobody invited you in here to our plotting, Zalmoxes" she added as the filmy and insubstantial figure of Zalmoxes Von Finsternacht, the second castle ghost, drifted through the wall.

"Fie! And who gave you leave to be free with my personal name, wench?" said Zalmoxes.

"It ain't half so free as calling someone 'wench' fellow" said Crow. "You are SO going to have to get over the idea of refusing to accept girls and goblins as scholars you know; you're here on sufferance and some of us know the insubstantial tickling curse and aren't afraid of you walking through them rudely" he added as the ghost barged through him.

It was a most unpleasant experience but Crow gritted his teeth and tried not to show that he disliked it; and was hit with warmth from the others.

"Oh go and rub your chain with crumbs" said Yrdl, having discovered more of Shakespeare when doing an impot.

Zalmoxes did wear a modest chain with his scholar's robes; it was an apposite quote.

"Alas when even female goblins mock me; woe that my homecoming is so mean and ill respected" he said.

"If you weren't so ruddy rude to people as a matter of course we might greet you with a little more sympathy and friendliness" said BaHH.

The Grey Scholar – as Zalmoxes liked to be known – retired through the wall in a huff.

"Bet there's a passage there; ghosts tend to travel down places they knew in life, not only pop through walls" said Yrdl.

"Tap and see if it sounds hollow" suggested BaHH.

"It might only be Zalmoxes' head if so" giggled Vava.

It took them a while to find the passage; which was little more than a plastered over doorway that lead down a short passage to another of the attic rooms; a little disappointing for all their assiduous demolitions work but at least was the finding of SOMETHING.

They returned to decide what to do to celebrate and came up with an idea.

They slid down all the banisters in order to get downstairs quickly to implement it – and for fun – and proceeded to enchant every carved head on the bosses of the double hammer beams in the great hall to sing grand opera on command. As none of them were particularly musical it was slightly off key grand opera; but as BaHH said, with all that twaddle, who'd notice anyway.

oOoOo

It may be said that when the command word was spoken and Severus was serenaded as he came in to supper, ALL the musical among staff and pupils noticed it; and Severus, wincing, put an abrupt stop to it.

"Whilst I appreciate the efforts some of you have been to, may I beg and pray you NOT to turn your undoubted magical talents to music for such an excruciating cacophony" he said.

"I thought you LIKED Opera, sir" said BaHH.

"I do, Mr Hellibore; which is why I dislike that travesty of disharmonious dissonant discord" said Severus.

"Hear hear!" said several of the musical.

"Well we TRIED" said BaHH

"Yes, Mr Hellibore; THAT is why I thanked you as well as removing the source of distress to the eardrums" said Severus. "Did we owe your efforts to anything particular?"

"Yes sir; we have a new marauder in Johanna AND it's been a proper school for five years now" said BaHH "And it's Sunday and we felt like it."

"Devastatingly honest" said Severus "Strictly speaking the school has not been under new management for the full five years yet but I suppose it's as good an excuse as any. Welcome to the Marauders, Johanna, try not to let this bunch of reprobates lead you too far astray."

Johanna beamed at him; she could feel his blood singing with hers and knew that when he welcomed her to the marauders it was as a marauder himself.

She was so happy!

And as her little sisters came into the school she would look out for them; and too any cousins she had from the branch that had married muggles.

And of course her mother was a muggle too; being a village girl who had been ordered to her scumbag of a father's bed, like the mothers of all her little sisters; but at that their mothers got discarded when HE got bored and did not have to be married to him like Franziska's mother did.

And her other married big sister Stefanie had been kind to her when she brought her husband and children to stay; and Stafanie knew too about Franziska and Gennic. And Franziska was going to tell her mother and see if she would give her tacit support; and Johanna hoped that she would. Lady Adalheid was a kind enough woman in a rather stern way and had sighed when greeting her own mother and her without making censorious comment; she KNEW whose fault it was. Johanna hoped she loved her own daughter more than she cared for convention! Or at least wanted to cock a snoot at Herr Gustav Schiff whom she would NOT think of as 'father'. She had been glad to come to school; he had chucked her beneath the chin and told her she would grow up to be a pretty one in a few years; and had fled thankfully when Franziska had dismissed her firmly in her capacity as maid; though she had heard her sister ask if her father planned to add incest to his other indiscretions. He had not even KNOWN that she was his daughter!

And here it did not matter; she was accepted just because. And she had family closer than family as well as her dear sisters!

oOoOo

Term was ready to start with a swing; even if of the new ones Jöran Ulvaeus was less swinging than some.

oOoOo

Severus had also had the minor headache that was Therese Appeltrath to sort out; which on top of the Swedish boy's histrionics he could have done without.

He had heard her story and used legilimensy; and found her to have been desperate enough – as well as hating her supervisor and her would-be boss enough – to be putty in the hands of a clever thief. Severus had chanted over her and she had gasped as she felt the strength surge into her body.

"The ill effects of the illness have now left you" said Severus "You will have some weakness that is a general lack of muscle tone; you should join in gentle games; we play soft ball hurley indoors and cricket in appropriate season; I doubt you'll manage quidditch; muggles cannot get brooms to fly. We also dance through the winter, formally and country dances. This school caters to delicate children as well as those with particular talent."

"You mean magic?" asked Therese.

"No, not normal magic; any school worth its salt can train a witch or wizard. We deal with those who are high flyers, or who are artistic or musical or have any off the wall and oddball talent; it's a small school and prepared to fit in the unusual. I take it by the way that you are quitting your previous life and are considering spending at least some time in the wizarding world?"

"I'll be honest, er, sir, I would not have considered the wizarding world had I known about it; it's scary" said Therese.

"I thought you were handling it rather well actually, all things considered" said Severus "The monkey house, otherwise known as the school train, is a rather excessive introduction to the world. It's a semi sanctioned way for them to let out all their high spirits at being permitted the use of wands again – it's forbidden under age except in designated schools – and to practise jinxes in case we have to deal with any more wizarding Nazis. We're going through an age of social reform and some reactionary old fools don't like it" he added. "I can arrange for you to have a set of new papers and dump you out in the muggle world that's appropriate to the papers you carry; or if you prefer you can start a new life by learning about our world, perhaps if you will study those qualifications that need no magic – Arithmancy for example, very much like muggle mathematics – and perhaps consider teaching in the future to witches and wizards what muggles are like. Most children, brought up secluded and sequestered, have very little idea; I fear a few even believe that muggles are non sentient. Getting THAT message across is one of the social reforms some of us are deeply concerned with; and the more that can be taught that muggles are normal people too the better. If you wish to stay for a while and decide, you may do so; only I will ask you to apologise to Miss Luytens for pulling a knife on her; I see in your thoughts that it was out of fear and desperation; but you should not give any witch the idea that muggles are ready to do violence as their first reaction. It is counterproductive."

"I AM sorry; I was sorry to have to frighten her – mind you she frightened me a whole lot more with what she did – and I would have wished I could have thought of another way."

"Did it never occur to you that the truth might actually have appealed to the romantic soul of a schoolgirl?" said Severus.

"Occur? I was past thinking" said Therese. "I – I should like to stay; at least for a while. I do not know what to do with my future."

"Then I shall tell the school that you are here to take the good Alpine air as you have been ill – true enough – and that you are considering studying in our post-graduate section to teach muggle studies. They need to know you are a muggle, so as not to play what would be to a witch harmless tricks that might catch you" he added "And that you were mistakenly under the impression that our post graduate students have to wear uniform too. It is a mistake anyone MIGHT make; and a muggle without access to our literature might be thought to do so more readily because you cannot be expected to know the customs of our world; any more than many know the customs of yours" he smiled. "You will find those above the first fairly knowledgeable about muggles; it's a study I take seriously and it is taught here by a young man who did not develop magical powers until he was seventeen – an adult in our world. He has wizarding blood in his family; indeed his young cousin has just started school at Hogwarts, the main English school."

"Why did his cousin not come here?" asked Therese

"Because, largely, she had made friends with a number of people planning to go to Hogwarts; and too she, like one of those friends, is the descendant of one of the founders of that school. We count familial ties very strongly in the wizarding world, and Bryony wanted to have the chance to be in the school house dedicated to her ancestor. We have too an unofficial policy of sending our children – when we may – to schools where relatives are not members of staff. Two of my daughters and one of my sons are consequently in Hogwarts right now; where the Headmaster is but a spare sort of brother, having been my ward, rather than having a father for the headmaster. The previous head retired and picked David Fraser; the first muggleborn headmaster. Both his parents were muggles."

"Were they killed to make him be adopted as a wizard then?" asked Therese.

"Certainly not!" said Severus "WHAT an idea; though one I suppose you can be forgiven for having. His parents and baby sister died as the result of a drunk driver; he was in an orphanage. Normally we try to explain to muggle parents about their child's gift; and often there have been….manifestations. Usually they accept it with bemusement; sometimes they reject it with fear and brainwash their unfortunate child into eschewing their talent. Once we have had a child told he must commit suicide to drive out the devil. Such things are to be avoided; and now it has happened once we can another time watch, and see to confund – confuse the minds of – any parents taking so evil a course. We use a lot of confundment and memory charms so we are not noticed; because it is the way of people who fear – as you yourself know – to react with violence. And one of our children here was almost killed through such reactions of muggle children when his magic first started showing and it has caused him many problems. I should like to see muggles and wizards living side by side in full knowledge and understanding of each other; but it isn't going to happen. I should know" he added with a rueful face "My father was a muggle and my mother was – still is for all I know – a witch. We don't get on" he added. "Never have done. Sometimes it's the way life pans out; we respect family but there is no point being hypocritical and pretending that all is sweet in the garden when it is not."

"I never got on with my stepfather and it made a breach between me and my mother" said Therese "It's why I came to the city."

"Sad, but sometimes inevitable" shrugged Severus "And a fault in OUR world that such things are often hidden. Well then, I shall enrol you as a post NEWT student and you shall find your feet and decide on your long term course of action."

oOoOo

Fraulein Appeltrath had been duly introduced with the other senior students and the children warned to be careful because she WAS a muggle; and Therese had received several shy comments that she was very brave to come and live in the wizarding world without so much as a shield charm.

And she HAD apologised to Irmi; who had accepted with a nod and a smile and a handshake with the suggestion that they start over.

They were nice kids here; and they didn't expect impossible things of her nor want to use her; for if she became a teacher it would be with pay and as an independent person.

She might just stay!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Frieda Verwirreman was already settling in well. She thought Prudence a very nice girl – especially in comparison to those who had largely made fun of her at Durmstrang, those who did not having largely ignored her outside the odd offhand kindness – and Muriel and Leneli too in their dormitory seemed pleasant enough. Leneli had been a little defensive about being a half goblin; but she had warmed to Frieda when the German girl had asked if it actually mattered to any but blood snobs who were surely to be pitied for actually caring.

Frieda had also met with Tibbles, the school Griffon and made an instant friend; to the admiration of Professor Ross, as Ross Tuthill was to be known.

The three Tuthills were hoping to settle in well; Ross had cheerfully deserted the secretaryship of Hogwarts since David Fraser was quite capable of running his own web site, which had been the majority of Ross's duties under the policy of concealing by obviousness; his sister was looking forward to working beside people who were not, in her words, egregious morons who aspired to imbecility when they grew up. This was a rather blatant Snapism but Ross let it go; it meant that Freya was just glad to be back working alongside Severus Snape and family rather than with the less than able Department of Mysteries.

She had brought with her copies of a number of files of supposed mysteries that fascinated her and planned to do private research. Ross had every expectation that Freya, with collusion from others of Severus' team, would get further in research in her first year despite teaching full time than the Department of Mysteries would be likely to get working flat out for a decade.

Their studies on heritance had been a laugh – or would have been had it not been used during Voldemort's brief control of the ministry to run pogrums on muggleborn witches and wizards

Vladimir Malfoy, working with the advantage of understanding muggle genetics, had been able to demonstrate clear correlations on Malfoy lines and showed quite clearly that Salazar Gaunt Moody and Bryony Nuffield were demonstrably of the same descent though there had been no wizarding blood known in Bryony's line for more than the twelve generations the child's mother had traced their family tree. Freya was interested in fey artefacts too and hoped to chat to Seagh about the same.

Happiest of all of the Tuthill family was Heather Burns Tuthill, Ross's little red haired wife; who had gate-crashed Hogwarts after reading 'Carola Storms the Chalet School'; and was delighted to be at something almost akin to her beloved Chalet School, right down to the uniform which at Jade's suggestion was the brown and flame of the original Chalet School, which had been set in the stories in Austria as Prince Peak was. Heather had come a long way from being a much bullied child in a Comprehensive school to have become a witch – with a little help to boost her meagre abilities from the Other Blood Group – and was now an outgoing and confident young woman happy to teach in a Chalet School like atmosphere in the slightly old fashioned way of the wizarding world.

oOoOo

Lydia, still bubbling over being Madam Krumm, did not really feel that she counted as a new teacher; though she had not come to Prince Peak to go to school, she felt she knew it well enough from all she had heard from Jade, and her various parents too; such that her first chanting class on Monday morning, being third years, she felt that she already knew even those students she had not met. Lucy Ingate had grown up as a near sister to her; and Vava and Hette Breuer and Sylvana Nachtigall were around the castle when Lydia was holidaying there, as was Rudi Schiff; and Beta Kalinka was a resident. So too was Sarah Elliot when her parents were in such places as would cause problems to her asthma. Lydia looked around the six she had never met.

"Well no prizes to me for guessing Mr Borek" she nodded to the only male goblin in the class "The two who are joined at the hip are undoubtedly Miss Hallow and Miss Yaxley and as I know that Miss Yaxley looks enough like a Malfoy to have the opprobrium of being some specie of cousin of mine so I can guess which is which. Miss Elliot I know and is doubtless sitting next to Miss Gesler; and Miss Blaise is therefore the one who is of a bunch with Miss Ingate, Miss Nachtigall and Miss Kalinka. Miss Schiff, being a Marauder, is then the one with the ubiquitous twins. I have to say you two boys must feel quite oppressed amongst such a monstrous regiment of not-yet-women."

Henik Borek grinned.

"We mostly ignore them Professor; they are largely harmless."

"I am glad you feel able to; just watch yourselves when your class gets to go to the ball" she warned. "Let's start with some warming up voice exercises and then I'll do an all class viva voce to check that you know all I expect you to know so I have some idea what level of prep to set."

Miss Bat had not been the world's most effective teacher; but the class was well grounded in theory and getting rid of the few bad habits they had picked up would not take much effort.

"You seem well prepared" said Lydia "I expect we shall come across the odd thing I would have covered early that your previous teacher has not; or I may teach something you have already covered with her. Do let me know; I can't know if you've missed something or are about to do it over if you don't tell me. Very good, I want you to pick an appropriate poetry style and write a brief chant to repel spiders. Brief notes on the reasons for your choices, including choice of form, length of line or number of lines and so on to be included; you have ten minutes of the lesson left and you may make a start on your prep now. This is the time in which I shall permit quiet discussion and it better be quiet or you'll be spending the day communicating by sign language."

This was the sort of thing that had to be made clear to third years who had as a general rule very little in the way of volume control. It was fortunately a fairly academic class and they set to with a will and actually very little chatter. Lydia was well pleased with them.

The lower sixth were NOT an academic year; but Lydia had only three students in the persons of the Lowther twins and Rory; the fourth of their set, Randolph, reckoning that he had enough on his plate with four NEWTs and an extra OWL in Magical Art taken alongside.

Among the rest of the Lower Sixth, it may be said that Frieda had been surprised to find the lower sixth considered a non academic year since four of them were taking five NEWTs and a further four were taking four; including her new friend Pru. Three were taking a fairly standard three; and the two NEWTs Frieda was taking were two more than she had ever expected to be permitted to study. She was glad that Pru would be in both classes; and she was also grateful that Professor Snape had assigned her extra help from the big genial young man he introduced as his ward, Victor Crabbe, who was to go over her lessons with her and check that she knew how to do the homework from them. Being able to read more fluently – thanks to Frau Professor Von Luytens who was Professor Snape's daughter – meant that she was already hopeful that she would pass and maybe more than pass her NEWTs; having managed passes in all four of the ZPs she had taken and scraping an 'E' on her care of magical beasts.

Pru was a little nervous, it has to be said, on her four subjects; or rather on her Astronomy that she was taking from her own study with some tutorials from Professor Snape.

Severus had asked to borrow some notes from Professor Sinistra in Hogwarts to help out Pru; and Aurora Sinistra had readily obliged. It would all help.

The Lower Sixth were determined to be querky; with Pru and Randolph both studying things on their own time and all of them making such random choices of subject that timetabling them all had been sheer hell. And at least the two who were taking care of magical beasts as WELL as care of domestic beasts were happy to have that scheduled in an evening class by an enthusiastic Ross Tuthill who, having been but a senior to Mungo Fraser two years before, would probably drop all formality and just be 'Ross' in that class. And fortunately Marius was alone in wanting to study History and so should be able to delve into European History with Percy, that would likely be another evening class over tea and cakes. Rory's solitary pursuit of Herbology required a daytime slot in the greenhouses but as a chaperone in the form of Fagia, the dryad, was likely to turn up to croon hopefully at him – at least as soon as her tree's sap started to rise – Valerie Burdock need not feel nervous at being alone with a young man. She would too doubtless schedule his class for a period when Elsie Blackwood, solitary upper sixth Herbology student, was in there undertaking free study and personal projects.

Elsie had very little free time; she was taking eight NEWTs which was ridiculous by anyone's standards. Chanting was one of them, and when Lydia heard the four upper sixth chanters, Elsie, Sebastian, Irmi and Darryl she told them that frankly there was little she could teach them as they appeared to have progressed more than well enough, which as they had studied under her father was scarcely surprising.

"And I caught up in large part due to you and Mimi" said Darryl "We were hoping to look into some of the more esoteric chanting forms; using numerology and perhaps descending into the less well known forms like Lilith's famous Hebrew poetry."

"Lilith is a law unto herself as I'm sure all of you are well aware" said Lydia "Very well we'll also wander off onto the paths of using the power of twenty three. Elsie, I have to say, if you find any other classes hard going I suspect you could get an 'O' if you took the damn exam tomorrow."

"That's as maybe but I LIKE learning things even if they are outside the exam" said Elsie. "I have no idea what I'm going to do when I leave school; I just picked the interesting things."

"A polymath like you –and Darryl hardly less so – and m'sister Jade ought to be teaching" said Lydia "If I were you, I'd pick a small school and offer to take two or three abstruse subjects like chanting and ancient runes and you'd just get the kids who were interested; or set up a school with your friend Emily, who's more than capable of teaching DADA as well as sports; and give a rounded education to OWL level. She's taking Potions and Charms, isn't she; there's a school in Berlin run by two sisters who manage four ZP's. It means having two or three classes all together on different levels."

"If we could get a couple of others we could do quite a good job actually" said Emily.

"I am thinking too of teaching, to help out with more schools for the poor" said Irmi "And Sebastian will be with me" she blushed "We might do worse than combine as a four."

"And maybe Mimi and me; IF the damned Germans can get over having fits over an elf being 'professor'" said Darryl.

"And as well as finding that out to check first if Emily IS keen" said Lydia. "Very well; chanting using numerology; aiming a chant at a specific person and tailoring the number of lines and syllables accordingly. You need not use this in the exam; it's way beyond what they're looking for by the way, though if you have time it should earn brownie points. Victor?"

Victor Crabbe had knocked and come in.

"Darryl let me know you're getting esoteric and interesting and I wondered if I could sit in" he said.

"By all means; I kind of picked up different stuff to what Dad teaches so I'll look forward to sitting in on him talking at you" said Lydia. "We were exploring the use of numerology in chanting."

"THAT sounds like Lilith had a hand in it" grinned Victor.

"No prizes for the guess" said Lydia.

oOoOo

Meanwhile Freya Tuthill was busy introducing the subject of Comparative Magic to second years and later fourth years; the fourth who were to study it were only those who had opted for it as an elective and as a small class might hope thereby to study enough to prepare them for the exam. Having only four years' worth of students and assorted oddballs was a nice easy introduction to teaching, thought Freya!

Actually she had three oddballs in the fifth who would take their OWLs this year; almost as many as the fourth where she had a class of four.

The second were getting a general overview, as would the third as well as the first; the first three years really gave background, and anyone who took up the subject older must needs do a lot of background reading. The second however all seemed intelligent and eager and ready to take on the concept of different customs in the approach to magic and different views of sundry magical creatures.

The students in the fourth were the marauders in the year; and Freya did not even need to be told that. There was a look to the eyes of marauders that saw further horizons than most; and BaHH, Batty, Yrdl and Crow approached Comparative Magic with the view to using it mixed and matched in other spells and – no doubt – japes. And doubtless if they pulled one it would be a daisy, since it was an unwritten rule that japes were below one in the fifth and older. Freya introduced Voodoo to them and was pleased by the intelligent responses and the queries over the differences between an inferius and a voudon-created zombie; and the question from Yrdl over whether the dual nature of the loa reflected the capricious nature of great form fey spirits and whether this was in any way connected to equally ambiguous so-called gods of old religions like Loki. Freya was able to say that it was highly likely that either powerful wizards or powerful fey had taken the forms of gods, originally muggle intellectual constructs to explain the forces of nature; and may have been responsible for such apparent caprice. The older of the Bee Marauders voted it a good lesson and Professor Tuthill 'starchy but knows her stuff'.

oOoOo

Term was off with a swing; and Severus was starting his calculations for the ritual to break the compulsion of elves in Europe to self punish; it would be a ticklish piece of work to get it right.

Getting Spain included was going to be a problem; and Severus sat and drew circles on a map.

To include the tip of Portugal south of Lisbon required too including parts of North Africa; and England would be covered a second time. That would do no harm however, merely reiterating the earlier ritual. And he must calculate the exact distance from the edge of the circle that would be also suitable for those would prefer not to have to stand on the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean. And even so they could not reach far into the vast expanse that was Russia; the circle would not even reach the Urals unless it were expanded southwards too; and Severus was loath to do that. It would be hard enough as it stood, with some chanters in sub tropical zones and other in the perpetual darkness within the arctic circle. Only by blood pulse could the timing be perfect.

At least Durmstrang School was sufficiently close to the centre of his first best guess circle to make a few adjustments; and then he might contact Agata Bacsó and talk very fast about how he believed that the Great Form Fey Spirits fed on the fear, pain and despair of their enslaved relatives, house elves, even as Dementors fed on despair; and that was enough to make Durmstrang's headmistress capitulate. She knew more about great form spirits than was comfortable.

They should have thirty six chanting stations; one every ten degrees. And every third one should be the one marked with the heart's blood of the willing sacrifice – Clovis Gierek and his elven wife Tildi to take the blood – and where possible they should be of the blood of the fey. Not elves or goblins, who had been servants of the high fey; and however good at chanting they might be, such must be excluded since there might be some clause that could invalidate the whole chant. But those of high fey blood who had chosen the human way, they were powerful. Which was to say any Malfoy; and Jade's friend Traudl; and of course Seagh. And it would not harm to have Lucius chanting too; he was very good. And that meant the twelve cardinal points would have those of highfey blood; Krait, Jade, Lydia, Lilith, Lucius, Draco, Traudl, Seagh, Sephara, Hawke, Abraxus and Myrtle; who had been made of Abraxus' flesh and so counted. And in all Thirty six; and as many again to take over as they flagged, or to hold the chant to hold the circle until the sun rose for those further west; and an elf for each pair and moreover another person who could apparate as a helper, or who might fetch aid. The goblins and elves of the blood group would be invaluable here. With the muggle intravenous drip and that muggle invention Draco – and how like Draco! – had used the first time, the motorman's friend it should be less arduous; even for those holding the chant for eight hours. More would be chanting; but many more would be supporting. Severus wrote down lists; and not all of the secondary chanters were blooded. They would have less to do, so having less support was less necessary. And after that then there were almost three times as many who were too young to chant or who were elves or goblins who might feed power as there were chanting groups, even leaving out those too young to understand. Whereas last time they had needed to commit almost all their resources to chanters.

His role might be a problem; for he must keep the ritual going for the full twelve hours.

He went to talk to Godfrey Goodchild.

"Help me to replace some of the chant with some instrument I can play without using my voice; harp or such" said Severus when he had explained.

"Harp is appropriate to the Gaelic you're using; but so is a bodhran" said Godfrey "It's an old, old type of drum; shallow and open at one end, and cross pieces inside that are held and a striker to play upon it, different notes acquired from the centre to the edge and a complexity possible on it that makes it a sweet instrument… Seagh know more than me, he told me about it."

"Then you and he must devise me a bodhran that will do, a measure that will take the place of the chant and then teach me to perform it" said Severus.

Seagh and Godfrey put their heads together; and Seagh went to every free elf he knew and asked for the sacrifice of a square of skin some two inches square. For the freeing of others none refused him; it was a pain far less than the pains they had been forced to impose on themselves for thinking disloyal thoughts.

And Seagh chanted around his collected pieces of skin and they grew together into a single skin; and with that he covered the bodhran and told Severus what had made it.

"And the body of it is wood given freely from their trees by our local dryads to limit the power of the frightening ones" he said.

"A powerful ritual instrument" said Severus, awed.

Such willing sacrifice added to the intrinsic power of any music played on the drum; and Severus hoped to do the beautiful instrument justice. And it was beautiful. Seagh had carved a pattern onto the drum, advised by Randolph, that would increase the volume and the effect of the beat; and he had rubbed and polished the wood and waxed it and polished it. And the soft, thin elf skin head was strengthened by spell and gave a fine clear tone when tapped.

Randolph was no chanter, but when Seagh had told him what was afoot he offered suggestion to Severus that a painted circle of power magnification would not come amiss; and nor would a protective circle of pain reduction for Clovis.

Severus accepted; and told him to write it up, and the drum pattern because there was no reason it should not go into his Art OWL.

Randolph snorted.

"A fig for the qualification; it's keeping you safe, sir, and doing the job that is my business; and I don't chant. I can serve in this wise instead, and be in the circle with you to add extra lines of protection if the fey decide to get stroppy; and to feed you my strength."

"Then bless you, my boy; I gladly accept" said Severus "I shall need it" he grinned "But we should NOT get disturbed by the fey; there's a fey exclusion line all around Durmstrang castle. Jade put it up so I should think it's rather secure."

"Rather!" agreed Randolph.

It seemed almost extraordinary that school life went on as usual around so momentous a plan; but go on it did.

oOoOo

Part of what went on was the minor unpleasantness over Jöran Ulvaeus.

Callum Prince took all the art students at once, once a week; as art was so individual he spent an entire afternoon perusing their personal projects and making assessment and suggestion and generally set a project for the next week's work.

It would be unfair to say that Callum was feeling unwontedly tetchy; but he was perhaps feeling less tolerant than usual since he had a ten month old son who was teething and nights were a trifle broken by an infant with a runny nose and equally runny bottom which symptoms so often accompany the acquisition of teeth.

Jöran had laid out his work with a flourish and had covertly looked over the offerings of the others; and was amazed by the professional looking work Randolph Wright had on display, including a very competent portrait of Draco Malfoy, who was well enough photographed to be recognisable to anyone; which lifted a haughty chin and gently sneered though of course it did not speak; wizarding portraits of people still living behaving only as wizarding photographs did, acting as the original might. Which meant that the portrait of Draco Malfoy stuck its tongue out at Jöran.

As well as Randolph and Paul the other artists were Roseli Accola, though Jöran was certain that a half goblin could scarcely produce any work of merit, and yet he was surprised by her standard; Sarah Elliot; and Werner Wasner, another part goblin whose work surely could not be as good as that? And Paul's work was better than it ought to be at his age!

Callum greeted them all when he came into the room and bade them stand by their work so he might see what they had been up to in the long holidays. He looked long at Randolph's.

"There's not a lot more I can actually teach you, you know Randy old man" he said "Though I do think you still use too bright a palette."

"It's being happy" said Randolph. "I don't go as far as Churchill to be sorry for browns and greys; because brights don't show up so good without neutrals and darks to put them against. But I guess I paint with an optimistic palette."

"Understood" said Callum. "Can you see though here on the portrait of Alastor Moody that it might just be a little TOO bright? Draco's a flamboyant bastard – goes with the family – so it won't affect that; but if someone's using that to connect to Vigilance Breeches after he's passed beyond the veil, having a touch of the sombres about it will make a better connection. Do you see?"

Randolph considered.

"I do see" he said. "I took the sketches when he was rejoicing proudly that his son was starting Hogwarts; so I guess I let that colour my judgement as well as the palette."

"Well I can see him rejoicing over a bit of peace; Salazar IS a young limb" grinned Callum. "Joking apart, I know EXACTLY what you mean; I felt like that when Severin cut his first tooth. The feeling palls several teeth on I do assure you! Knock back some of those mid shades and put in a thundery sky rather than a blue one; it hints at the trouble he's seen and then he'll show up as a bright light of justice against it without having to be quite as…. No, garish is a harsh way to put it and untrue; optimistic, that's the word."

Randolph nodded and got out his colours.

Callum moved to Roseli.

"Yes, your draughtsmanship is stronger since last year" he said "You've worked hard on that; now I can say it's a well draughted piece of work as well as being pretty. Without the word pretty being intended as derogatory; prettiness is only a fault where line and composition are weak. You've always had a good feel for composition; and your use of colour is good. I like the blue robe of the witch against the golden wheat and her golden hair against the blue sky and the way it whips in the wind to lead your eye round to the poppy field beyond. And you've placed just a nice amount of movement on the wheat with the gentle breeze. Are you going to fill her arms with dog daisies and poppies?"

"I was thinking of it; I wondered if it were trite" said Roseli.

"Of course it's trite; but that's because it tends to work" said Callum. "She needs something in her hands; you could give her a liver and white spaniel I suppose; or put a hawk on her wrist that she be clearing vermin from the fields; or a book that she is on her way to study under the shady tree that frames the composition. Or a baby. Think about it; don't make any hasty decision; do two or three colour sketches with pencils and blu-tac each of them over the main painting. Handy stuff, blu-tac; it's a muggle invention. Here" he delved in his own artist's case and passed a ball of pale blue stuff to Roseli. "Warm it and pull off what you need; it fixes stuff to walls. Can tear paper when you take it off. You don't need huge amounts and it's infinitely reusable, can be all rolled together again" he added.

Roseli murmured thanks and got out coloured pencils as Callum moved on. He pointed out a small error in draughtsmanship to Sarah, praising her industry too; and told Werner,

"Once again, Werner, you are letting yourself be too controlled; it is starting to lack spontaneity. Do me some big loose sketchy ones and THEN you may reduce them to your careful line drawings; you are not creating a photograph."

"Yes sir; but my small ones have improved, haven't they?" asked Werner.

"Oh yes; but you should remember to keep the techniques you use for working drawings for metalwork separate from your art" said Callum.

"Sir" said Werner; and Callum moved to Paul.

"Ah, young Paul" said Callum "At school at last; I wager being the youngest that feels good?"

"Yes, sir" said Paul.

Callum looked over his work; Paul had brought the picture of the leopard. Callum nodded.

"That IS rather your best piece. Do you know WHY it is your best?"

"Is it because I just drew her without thinking too hard about it because I knew I shouldn't have much time to do it if she fell off?" said Paul.

"It is" said Callum "And you had the sense to realise the spontaneity was what made it special; and that's as much what an artist needs to learn as any technique. The sense to know when to stop."

"I'm lucky to have a good friend who, though he's not an artist himself, knows enough not to let me spoil things" said Paul.

"A good friend then" said Callum "And worth training perhaps; he may sit in if he likes. He may learn enough to teach; and I'll give him some techniques to that end if he's interested."

"Thank you sir; Reaz will probably leap at it for interest's sake" said Paul. "He has a good eye."

Callum turned to Jöran.

"You must then be Jöran" he said. "These are pieces you have done recently to show me?"

"Yes sir" said Jöran. "Naturally my style is unformed at my tender age."

"Oh I shouldn't worry about your style until you've learned enough basic technique to feel competent enough to want to look for a style" said Callum "Paul is sufficiently well advanced to consider a style; and judging by his leopard sketch I'm about to introduce him to Chinese brush work. You've a good raw talent underlying this, my lad, but I fear it's going to take a deal of work on your part and mine to lose some of the bad habits you've picked up; I presume because you've been trying to get a style before getting the basics. Much of this is rather stilted and over mannered; you'll need to learn to draw freely again. I think what I'll do is to set up some objects – apples and vases – and give you large pieces of paper and child's chalks to get you working freely and then we may move on when you've lost the tightness; that I suspect may have been a mistaken attempt to teach you, without realising that the person who suggested it actually exacerbated the faults you need to deal with. Trying to teach perspective before you have learned to see was a failure of you. But not a problem; we can sort it out."

"I will NOT be insulted and treated as a child! And I read for myself how to make perspective; it is an advanced technique, I am very advanced not to daub and scrawl with chalks!" cried Jöran.

"An advanced technique, yes" said Callum dryly "More advanced than your capability which is why you have failed to master it; because you can't draw in perspective until you learn how to draw. And I do not treat you as a child; rather I give you the compliment of expecting you to want to learn and to lift your native talent to give it justice. You need to go back to basics because any teacher you have had up to now has been failing you in encouraging you to draw outside your capabilities and not knowing how to correct what has been drawn."

"A TRUE artist does not NEED to be told when they are doing something right!" cried Jöran.

"Possible a genius might not; but you're not that, laddie" said Callum sharply "You're also not very polite. And if you cannot see that there is much that needs correcting in your work, nor are you true to yourself; and an artist who is not true to himself is no true artist. Tell me, DO you want my instruction at all or do you want to tell me that you are satisfied with the scrawls you have brought me and do not care for constructive criticism on them? Because if you will not accept my teaching you how to overcome the bad habits you apparently have taught into yourself I'm not prepared to have a loud and rude little boy in my class."

"You HAVE to teach me; you're paid to do so!" shouted Jöran.

"Actually, if I were paid, I should still have the right to exclude any pupil; as it happens I teach this class unpaid solely as a favour to my cousin Severus Snape" said Callum with a dangerous quiet to his voice that suddenly put Jöran in mind of the head "And you know, actually, whether you are prepared to take my strictures or not, for THAT piece of insolence I DO exclude you from my class; get out and take your travesty of what you call art with you. You are foul to speak to anyone like that, and to speak to a member of staff as though I were a servant at your nasty beck and call is the outside of enough. Why are you still here?"

Jöran stared aghast at the furious face of the artist that now looked so much like Professor Snape's that he almost wet himself. He grabbed up his drawings and his portfolio and fled.

oOoOo

Serrik gan Torgar later heard sobbing in the toilet and went to see what was wrong.

He hesitated, seeing that it was Jöran.

"Look here Ulvaeus, Coventry is one thing but I'll listen if you tell me what's up and I'll see if I can sort it out" he said.

Jöran rounded on him.

"What good are YOU?" he said "You know NOTHING about art, Nothing!"

"No I don't" said Serrik "But I do know that the other artists are in class and so I'm wondering why you're out here. You haven't been such a fool as to piss off Professor Prince, have you?"

"None of your business!" snapped Jöran.

"Suit yourself" said Serrick. He went and used the facilities – which was why he had been there in the first place – and rejoined Wilhelm.

"I think I ought to talk to the head" he said, telling Wilhelm why.

oOoOo

Severus listened to Serrik, who had carefully explained that he did not intend this as sneaking but as passing on something that was beyond him and the other marauders in the class. Serrik gave a concise tale of the history of Jöran and the first, including his sending to Coventry over calling Paul a liar; and that the boy was now crying in the loo.

Severus thanked him; and went to find Jöran.

He induced the Swedish boy to tell him all about it.

"Well now my boy" he said "If you had taught yourself to brew potions and had got some bad habits, like not stirring right to the bottom, wouldn't you expect to have that corrected when you got to school by a professor who is an expert in the field?"

"But SIR, you can't compare potions to drawing!" Cried Jöran.

"True; any idiot can make marks on paper after all; a potioneer has to be born to be great" said Severus "The greatest art in the wizarding world was perhaps a poor example to pick to compare. Ah, now, how do you like YOUR art belittled? For I find your belittling of MY art, a creative art when it is done consummately, quite insulting. I do wish, you silly little boy, you would think before opening your mouth and insulting people; I understand your own honour is in question since you called another a liar. Since it is usually liars who call the fault on others. I think you are no liar but a rather self opinionated little boy with less to be self opinionated about than you believe. And I assure you that my cousin was NOT intending insult to you by trying to help you lose the bad habits you have acquired; apart from Arithmancy your entrance exam was not so good that I should have accepted you had not Callum advised me that he could break the bad habits of your drawing to turn you into a good artist. You are here on the grounds of your art; do you really intend to throw that away? Do you want to be an artist?"

"Yes sir" said Jöran, subdued.

"Then I suggest you come with me and apologise to Professor Prince; and ask him to give you another chance; and promise faithfully to obey his strictures" said Severus.

"He was so ANGRY!" said Jöran

"And quite understandably, the way you spoke to him" said Severus. "You have given yourself a bad name; but I don't think you're as bad a boy as you seem to go out of your way to appear. Just rather arrogant and inclined to look at things from a skewed angle. Come!"

Jöran found himself stumbling through an apology to Professor Prince and to the class for disrupting it; and Callum nodded acceptance and waved him to a chair; where under instruction he was soon drawing an apple using black and white chalk only and concentrating – for the first time in his life – on the tonal values and the shape of the fruit and its shadows.

And Professor Prince nodded at the first warning bell for kafee und kuchen and said,

"THAT's an improvement laddie; and I want you to practise all week doing single objects like that. A book, a fruit, a vase. Simple things. And KEEP LOOKING at them; see how lifelike you've managed to make it for looking?"

And Jöran had – grudgingly – to admit that it was the best thing he had ever done even though he hated the feel of the big chalks in his fingers.

And Severus was waiting to talk to the boy.

"I should think" he said quietly "If you were to apologise for calling whichever lad it was a liar for whatever it was, you might find the other kids as willing to forgive as Professor Prince."

They ought to; he had leaned on the marauders through Serrik to give the boy a chance.

And Jöran, who had enjoyed himself more than he had realised he might, managed to stumble through an apology for doubting Paul's word, because he had not realised that anyone so young could be so accomplished. And Paul, who knew what his guardian would expect, shook his hand, and the others nodded and murmured acceptance. Jöran had missed his chance to make friends but he was at least likely to be treated with something between tolerance and amused contempt.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Jöran and Paul found themselves in something of the same boat with their art homework, sighing over an unfamiliar medium and being required to look.

The non-marauders were variously posing for Paul and encouraging Jöran.

Paul was using Chinese ink and a brush and was being required to find a line of movement in people and animals, to get as much of a moving creature down on paper with a minimum of lines; which as he said to Jöran was limited as yet to a spine and perhaps a leg as moving people would, well, move.

"He's very tough is Professor Prince" said Paul "He gave me a few pointers when I was in the nursery last year and he doesn't hold back criticism OR praise. I got ticked off for the same sort of things as you; trying to be too clever. Only being a kind of second hand relative of his he was a bit harsher on me. I guess I must have taken it enough to heart to have satisfied him because on the whole he was fairly easy on me. I SO will have an earful about some of these though; and I know which ones because I know where I was careless or hadn't looked as well as I thought I had. Draco does these sort of sketches so well; about four lines and you KNOW it's a seeker reaching for a snitch. And Draco doesn't count himself an artist and claims only to have taught himself to draw well enough to lampoon his teachers. And being Draco that's probably true."

"You mean Draco Malfoy? Do you then actually KNOW him?" asked Jöran.

Paul stared.

"Well of COURSE I know him; Krait's his cousin!" he said "Krait – Madam Malfoy she teaches as, but of course she's Madam Snape – is my guardian too, so we all knock around with Lucius' brats in the hols, natch."

"And he will tell you that class does not matter to schoolboys and mean it sincerely" said Gabiden. "Because Paul is so very English that he thinks of Mr Lucius Malfoy as just a sort of uncle I think; and forgets that he is one of the most famous wizards in the whole wizarding world; and perhaps only Harry Potter more so."

"Well I know Harry has to put up with a lot of silliness, but isn't that pushing it?" said Paul. "Harry is Severus' ward too, so I do know that he thinks people can get a little daft over him being The Chosen One since it was only freak that he was the one chosen, he says."

"Lucius Malfoy is a name known across the globe" said Gabiden "As is Harry Potter. It is, I think, very nice that you are so English that you just accept being in the position almost of being as a brother to Harry Potter and do not boast; I should have boasted. But I am learning the English way and I see it is nicer to be happier to love your friends and relatives than to – to wave them on display like en erumpant shows off its horn."

"Well I guess I never thought of Lucius and Harry and Draco as people to wave" said Paul. "Severus would have jumped on it pretty damn quick! I mean, I'm tremendously proud to be the ward of the world's greatest potioneer; but I guess it's okay to boast about Severus in that respect because he's EARNED that by talent and hard work too not just been famous for being born it; because even if you ARE born with such a tremendous talent as he was, you won't amount to a damn if you DON'T put in the work. And I know he had a pretty useless teacher at Hogwarts so he had to teach himself a lot of it out of books. And Krait for that matter, who was brought up in a muggle orphanage and caught up five years' work in a year; and of both of them for spying on Voldemort and being in constant danger. I guess I reckon they're pretty wonderful people; especially as they took in my siblings and me during that scary time and never let us feel we were subordinate to the cause. And yes, Harry IS pretty wonderful too; he had to be famous and still do his schoolwork and fight Voldemort. But he wishes that now it's over people would let him forget it. They won't of course; but to me, he and Draco are big boys who used to play with me and that's more important than either being a big cheese in the council."

"I think" said Reaz "It is why so many people admire Harry Potter so much; he always seems to be just like them – and yet he is, too, a hero, as well as being unspoiled by the attention. He is a man you could imagine living next door and giving a hand with de-doxifying."

"How romantic though, to be a prophesy!" said Bertha Jorkins.

"Can THAT, Jorkins!" said Paul "I don't remember it, but my oldest brother has told me that Severus had to speak to him sharply about letting other silly asses moping about prophesies upsetting his schoolwork and the sooner he got a chance to fillet Fishface – it's what they called Voldemort – and finish the whole silly business the better."

"I think it's silly to believe in prophesies" said Lydia Grant "Nobody's totally accurate, are they?"

"Professor Prince is, but he only gets fits of prophesy dead close to things happening" said Paul. "He draws the fairly immediate future if seeing someone or something trips him into a drawing trance. But Severus says that prophesies are NOT always fulfilled and the Department of Mysteries is full of unfulfilled prophesies and often they only happen if someone goes out of their way to make them; like Voldemort did."

"Professor Tuthill used to work in the Department of Mysteries; let's go and ask her" said Lydia.

oOoOo

Freya was happy to answer the group of first years that indeed most prophesies were not fulfilled – those indeed that were even heard and stored. And that trying to avert trouble might even be the trigger to cause it; or make no difference since the obscurity of prophesies meant that interpreting them was another matter entirely.

"Particularly as some of them are obscure; and may not mean what the people hearing it think" she said "One I've heard – having tracked down to whom it referred – went 'the goblin of the line of Gurdak shall bear a wand and defeat wizards, yey, even of the oldest of families'; which had the unfortunate Gurdak murdered. He already had a daughter however and her line gave rise to Kinat gan Konal, first goblin at Hogwarts, whose wand was at the disposal of Harry Potter and who fought deatheaters and werewolves with the rest of them. A knee-jerk reaction that did nothing to avert the prophesy; which was true as far as it went, but not in the way the ignorant peasant wizards in the eighteenth century thought."

The children thought it fascinating and Bertha, who was wont to be inclined to believe in omens, was a trifle chastened. And Freya was rather down to earth and inclined to think that divination should be used to predict the weather and find criminals and should otherwise be left severely alone!

Jöran was not sure what to think; but it WAS rather pleasant not to be excluded from the group that went to ask questions. And he must reassess Paul too in terms of who he knew; Jöran was not a snob but he was rather inclined to see a parentless ward as someone who was a bit above himself, perhaps at the school through sufferance; but he had to admit that Paul WAS good, and some of his three line sketches were almost suggestive of people running and jumping.

And even though he did not need glasses any more they had none of them tried to jostle him. And it was actually rather nice to be able to see clearly from the moment of waking up without having to grope for his glasses.

"Why has Professor Snape never cured Harry Potter's eyes?" he asked suddenly.

Paul blinked.

"Never occurred I suppose" said he "Besides, before he invented chanting – or rather rediscovered it – nobody had done that sort of thing; and Harry's dad wore glasses and Harry looks like him and James Potter fought Voldemort too and I guess Harry is happy to look like his dad in all details. But more like it never occurred. Harry could fix his own eyes, he's a good enough chanter you know."

"Heh, I bet he likes to be able to take them off, supposedly to clean, so he can pretend not to recognise people he don't want to talk to" said Reaz.

"It wouldn't surprise me" said Paul. "Can you lot jiggle about some more? Only I want to fill another couple of sheets before we have to go to the common room and I can't do any more set exercises. Jöran, it's not forbidden for artists to doodle in leisure time, or paint for pleasure, like musicians, but we're not supposed to do set exercises, as that IS prep. Of course, you'll doodle constantly – I do – and it draws on lessons and instructions, but it's not strictly something we're handing in so we get lenience over that."

"I see I think" said Jöran "we MAY draw if we want but only if it is what we want to do. Because it is our life, and so is a leisure activity as well as a subject."

"Like I may build clockwork trains" said Reaz "Because I like metalwork AND trains. And hard lines on those who like Arithmancy."

"Nothing to stop them filling in puzzle books that use Arithmancy in tortuous puzzles" said Paul. "Like Siegfried in the second doing chess problems and m'sister doing sudoku. It's to stop people studying until they make themselves stupid because they aren't keeping up, or something."

They stopped the conversation in a hurry to apologise to Sirri who had come in to see if the Marauders were with them as Wilhelm had an owl from home and she walked into a handspring Lydia was performing for Paul.

It was time for kaffee und kuchen anyway so they packed up and went to find it.

oOoOo

The owl was not serious; just a line from Wilhelm's sister who had been a little preoccupied when he left for school with brand new twin baby sons.

"Ann is decent to write just because" said Wilhelm. "I like her husband too, even though he is a Duke; he's very decent despite that. Eduard is all right and it's quite fun being an uncle; I expect I shall be able to teach Leopold and Leonhard heaps of good spells when they get a bit more interesting and by the way, aren't marauders supposed to pull japes?"

They fell to discussion over what ought to be done.

oOoOo

Srang contacted Severus by the communications globe.

"Headmaster, there are people who wish to mount; they are from the Austrian Ministry of Education" he said "They have no right to stick their noses in to an English school do they? I didn't say so, but I wanted to check."

"They have no rights at all; but you may send them up and I'll have the head girl escort them to my office. Have the rail staff on standby in case I need them to escort them off the premises."

"Boss" said Strang.

oOoOo

There were six people to escort to the head's office. One was in the robes of a minister, the others were youngish men and women in a variety of robes that were not any kind of identifying uniform. Irmi curtseyed politely to the Minister and wished him elsewhere since she was wrestling with her prep on Gamp's Law.

"Please come with me" she said, leading them off.

The curtsey she gave Severus on being invited in after knocking was a deeper and more respectful one.

"Domine" she said. "Do you wish me to wait without?"

"You may stay within Miss Luytens" said Severus "As the school's representative; you won't learn any younger."

Irmi inclined her head; what Severus meant was that he wanted a witness and she might also learn now to rout interlopers if such they were according to law.

She politely summoned chairs from the end of her wand for the visitors; one might as well show off one's accomplishments.

The minister was impressed.

"Your head girl is most accomplished" he said to Severus.

Severus smiled.

"She is an excellent student; and prefers to aim for the top grade in the five NEWT subjects she is taking then risk dropping to an 'E' in one or two if she took more; a prudent girl" he said.

"Your academic standards are very high" said one of the young women "I considered myself good to achieve four ZHs."

"The school IS rather set up now towards academic excellence or some kind of unusual talent" said Severus "We also specialise in musical and artistic talent, and too in quidditch; which I should not have considered had not my daughter Lydia married Viktor Krumm who thus comes to us to help our sports teacher. We too take students with special medical needs who require small classes and sometimes special coaching; asthma is relieved by the mountain air, and one of our students had problems manifesting his magic from a childhood trauma. We still of course have some of the students who were here in the time of Miss Cackle, but I have to say that I am pleased on the whole with the way they have risen to the challenge. One of them is taking only three NEWTs but as she is also talented at Quidditch this is scarcely surprising. Our delicate child of that year is taking eight; and two of the boys are taking seven."

Irmi looked smug; one of the two boys was her boyfriend Sebastian. The other was the head's ward, Darryl; and Emily was just a genius.

"My goodness!" said the minister. "I rather fancy that is beyond the standard most schools may hope to achieve; yes indeed, you young people should not feel disheartened!" he added to his protégés.

"May I ask what it is you want of me, Minister?" asked Severus "The school, being English, is not really under the regulation of the Austrian ministry."

"Oh no, quite so!" said the minister "Did you not get my owl requesting this meeting?"

"No minister I did not" said Severus.

"Ach I HAVE got gremlins in the office!" cried the minister "Always messages go astray!"

"Perhaps, if you do not take them to the owl loft yourself, minister, your gremlins are either a lazy office boy who can't be bothered to run them upstairs; or a mole who wishes to sabotage your reputation" said Severus dryly "You will have to fill me in on what you wrote."

"Indeed yes; let us hope it is nothing but laziness" said the minister "These young people wish to set up a free school with ministry funding for the poorer members of society; and are anxious to see how goblins and half goblins and humans interact in a school environment; so we thought that by seeing your school they would have a better idea."

Severus twitched an eyebrow and conjured butterbeer all round.

"An admirable project" he said "But I fear that there are some realities of life with which any hopeful teacher needs to be acquainted. For a start, I charge an arm and a leg for the privilege of learning in a small select school. I provide scholarships for the truly talented poor; but generally speaking my children are wealthy. It makes a difference and I will explain why" he went on, seeing protest on the lips of some of the young idealists. "Wealthy children have, on the whole, nothing to prove. The one real racist we had – I had to expel him – was sponsored by his father's employer. He was a goblin boy who was of the lower middle classes and he insisted on calling part bred people 'abominations' which included two sisters and one of my staff members. I could not bring him to a level of understanding and I would not have the young people and staff member involved subjected to such abuse as he handed out. In poor communities either there is a community spirit because all have to work together and be neighbourly in order to survive – as often happens in England where there is very little segregation by race – or there is the situation where the only people who may be despised are those of other, or mixed race. My daughter Jade, also known as Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens, has found this when setting up the subsidised school in Germany; that some of both races refused to attend because they would not mix with those of other races. They are the losers; but you MUST be prepared for it. And to be ready to leap on racist comment and emphasise that your students are students, not humans or goblins or part-bred. You are welcome to look around the school; Irmi will show you, and my dear I shall have a word with Madam Malfoy to give you an extension on your essay and I will relax the leisure rule for you."

Irmi curtseyed.

"Thank you sir" she said.

"What is this leisure rule?" asked one of the would-be teachers, a very correct looking young man.

"Growing bodies need a balance of work, exercise and leisure" said Severus "Doing schoolwork in common rooms is forbidden; also in bedrooms. And each age group has a set time past which they are not permitted to do school work. The sixth are on their honour not to break this in their private studies; Miss Luytens is wrestling with Gamp and is doubtless hoping to get back to him but a break will NOT do her any harm. But as she has the break now, I give her a half hour extension on her work time this evening."

"Thank you for the explanation, Herr Professor; we had no such rule at Durmstrang" said the young man.

"Perhaps it is some measure of how I obtain such excellent results through my students" said Severus "There is no such rule at Hogwarts either; though I suspect that my protégé, Professor Fraser will be instituting it gradually. My daughter has it as part of the starting rules of her school; which, by the way, I suggest you visit – AFTER Yule. Setting up a new school is hard enough without visitors. You may wish to travel to England and see the free school in Obscura Alley; I expect that Professor Longbottom, the head, will permit you to act as classroom assistants for some weeks and take over teaching some of the classes, to get a feel for the rougher elements of society. One of whom, incidentally, graduated to be my herbology teacher; and another is teaching transfigurations in the German school. He took five NEWTs after three years education; so there is much that the truly ambitious youngster can achieve. Irmi, show the professors around if you please."

Irmi curtseyed again and led the visitors round each class.

They were amazed that the classes all rose to greet a visitor; and stared slightly at the mix of races, not just goblins and part goblins, but elves too.

Irmi too led them to see the common rooms, which was when they discovered the fruits of the ponderings of the would be marauders.

The flagstones along the corridor each played a different musical note.

"Mm" said Irmi "A different twist on the honky-tonk twinkletoes curse; mildly ingenious."

"Are – are such pranks encouraged?" asked the proper young man.

"Oh yes; all pranks develop wandwork or – in this case I think – chanting" said Irmi. "A mild imposition is set for any jape that causes inconvenience; sooner or later a prefect or member of staff is going to get irritated by sounding like a child's toy for walking along this section of corridor and will delete the effects. I'm not going to bother; the culprits plainly went to a lot of effort and it hurts nobody. I expect the musically talented will learn to skip about to make a harmonious combination of sounds. Just think; they could have made them make farting noises."

"Children can have a rather er basic sense of humour" said one of the girls.

"Yes; one of the favourite curses here is the fluorescent fart jinx, invented by one of the staff members when she was a schoolgirl at Hogwarts" said Irmi "It's reckoned a fair jinx for dropping on visiting dignitaries or pompous grown ups, so DO check your rears after you leave; _finite incantatem_ deals with it adequately. Kids will be kids especially in the lower forms; and the feistier elements of the third of course like to show off that they can drop minor curses without word or wand. As you can see we have nice airy common rooms, two years share each common room except the fifth, who being an exam year have their own common room, not to study but to escape the younger ones. Story books and games are encouraged here, and there are lockers for collections to be stored and hobby materials. You'll see a lot of knitting stuff out at the moment, and patchwork; we're sewing and knitting for the poorest in society. There's an orphanage associated with the subsidised school and we're making stuff to jolly it up; and the boys doing metalwork and woodwork stuff. One of the first year kids here is making a clockwork train set from scratch; ambitious but a couple of older ones are helping him. And the woodwork mostly stays in the woodcrafting room; patchwork can be done in the common room but we have too sewing machines for larger items. One of the lower sixth is making machine appliquéd curtains with simple scenes on them; they are very pretty."

This was Frieda who was, with all her problems, a fine hand sewer; but also took to the sewing machines so well that she was delighted to give something back by making pretty things for orphans. And Irmi showed the would-be teachers the hobby rooms.

"I should think that actually teaching a trade like carpentry or sewing would be helpful for those of your students who are not very academic" she said "Even if they are able to take a ZAP, having such a skill might prove useful; and you could then too give employment to an impoverished dressmaker who is perhaps well capable of teaching but is too old to make a living by reason of hands crippled with arthritis; and a carpenter likewise."

"A brilliant idea" said the minister "These machines – they are amazing! I have never seen the like! Are they English inventions? Both sewing machines and lathes are most cunningly wrought!"

Irmi laughed.

"They are muggle inventions of the last century that have been copied in English factories; from the time before muggles widely used electricity. Madam Krait Malfoy Snape introduced the concept, being amazed that the wizarding world did not use them and being disgusted with the poor quality of sewing spells. One might cut out and make up a robe in an afternoon if one is skilled. It would be a great boon to the economy of your poor children if they might do so. And an increase in cheap clothing would mean more people would become better dressed also. And an increase in an educated society means an overall increase in wealth and hence an overall increase in demand for manufactured goods thereby further stimulating the economy."

"Is that so? You are very knowledgeable, Fraulein Luytens" said the minister.

"It is what I have learned in muggle studies sir; as muggles spend money in the same way wizards do. And they are in Europe socially more advanced than we, with less grinding poverty. They made many social leaps since the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald" she added. "For them, the war was over; we still had Odessa as a very real menace, and England had Voldemort. Now we have a freedom from such oppressors we are free to make social advance so we may not be shamed by the enlightenment of most muggles."

"I know very little about muggles" said the minister. "But if they can invent such machines that are as ingenious as many a goblin might build I fancy we may underestimate them."

"Many wizards do" said Irmi, dryly. "Which is a mistake. I would strongly advise phasing in muggle studies with your tuition also; many of the poorest are poor because they are marginalised for having muggeborn parents or muggleborn in their recent ancestry; they have more knowledge of muggle ways, and there may be a muggle family member who knows about the wizarding world who might be employed to explain truth about muggles, not the foolish myth that electricity is an attempt to copy magic. For if that were so, it would make the statute of secrecy a foolishness, would it not? Electricity was harnessed first in the nineteenth century for the sending of messages by short and long bursts of electrical power; it was not used for anything more –and then only as a novelty – until the end of that century, two hundred years after the statute of secrecy. It is only in the last fifty or sixty years that muggles have become totally dependant on electricity, to the extent that if it were lost, millions would die as a result, mostly of starvation; since they use it to preserve food, not to copy preservation cupboards – of which they are unaware – but because muggle explorers found that frozen animals in northern climes were still good to eat after they had been frozen a long time. Which they sort of knew anyway because of ice houses; but it meant cheap food was available for all, and the population naturally grew. And so too did the muggleborn increase, because more heritance factors came together that threw up the hidden combinations of wizardry in the population. This was also contributed to by muggle forms of transport that permitted more people to travel and meet and mix heritance. You might say the increase of our kind and its expectation of thriving is partly made possible by muggle technology."

"An interesting view" said the minister carefully "One that I suspect many would find unpalatable."

"Well, stuffy old fools find anything that challenges their set and often fallacious beliefs unpalatable" said Irmi "I AM glad that Austria is going to be forward looking and realises that education for all is a way forward to increase civilisation and promote the country's whole economy; and I who am part Austrian and part German – my mother was German – hope that it will be an idea that penetrates at least most German heads by the end of this century, though we cannot expect Russia to be civilised in the foreseeable future. They haven't even got the least semblance of civilisation among their muggles; they are even more a peasant economy than the French."

"Not that you're at all parochial" teased the youngest teacher.

Irmi grinned.

"We have been told by the French student we have here that there are two Frances; Paris and the peasantry" she said "At least France is trying, but it is grass roots attitudes that delay them. Russia is too culturally fragmented to be really able to be considered as one country; and has suffered much from war, famine, and stupid social and economic experiments on the part of muggle leaders who had as much idea as a cheese cauldron. Muggles can cause great disaster as well as producing very useful things and having ideas that are altruistic. Some because they mean well but are dense; some because they're downright nasty. The word Tyrant is an old one and the concept goes well before the time that we separated from muggles. And the meaning has changed to be more negative; and that is the same in both worlds too. Have you actually any of you visited poor neighbourhoods?"

"No Fraulein; why, do you think we should?" asked the proper young man.

"If you have not seen the conditions in which your pupils live, how then can you hope to understand the way they think?" said Irmi. "If a child is used to being brought coffee in bed by an elf, he is a lazy little so-and-so by the time he gets to school. If a child is used to rising at dawn and doing a sixteen hour day to support a widowed mother and eight younger siblings he will be worrying that they will be managing as well as being used to expend more physical energy than he is called on to do at school which may make him inattentive and disruptive. If he has lived in a damp apartment with flaking plaster he may be physically frail with a continual cough that will disturb his sleep and disrupt his studies. If he has no toilet facilities and no running water – common on the continent – he may have dirty habits that need GENTLE teaching to overcome, not ridicule for something he knows no better than. If a little girl has been raised in a brothel, she may have been trained from an early age to raise her skirt to men for a few knuts. She may already have been used by the age of eleven and have bad physical damage that causes her problems with toilet needs. And well may you look shocked; but Jade Von Strang und Luytens is my step mother and she has delved deep into the shame that is Germany's poverty. There are orphans in the orphanage who have needed such healing, and it will take years of gentling to heal them mentally. Such you must be prepared for; such is what happens in a society when the rich may have whatever they want and the poor go to the wall. You are MORE than teachers, you are pioneers of a better society, knights of justice and mercy for the poorest who will lift them from the poverty trap and give them a gift beyond price, that of education!"

The minister and the young teachers were much moved by Irmi's impassioned speech.

"I – I do not know if I can do this after all" said one of the young women.

"Fraulein; you are privileged" said Irmi "You are educated. You fear because it is a difficult task; were your ZH's easy? They were not. Yet you faced them because taking them was worth while. You CAN do it; you will find the courage in you to face the horror the poor must face daily because they have no choice; because I believe you CAN be brave and stand up to it. And when the stinking, snotty half breed brat climbs onto your lap to sob out her tale of humiliation and degradation you will be too angry on her – or his – behalf NOT to find the reserves to show no disgust to the child but only comfort. I somehow suspect" she added "That Austria will not prove to have such extreme problems as the big cities in Germany; being an altogether more pastoral society. And, may I add, a more neighbourly outlook generally; a friendliness."

"I hope so" said the young woman. "I – I cannot imagine such horrors! And I do not want to!"

"Then you should take whatever you come upon a little at a time, day by day" said Irmi. "My boyfriend and I purpose to teach a free school too, with those of our friends who will join us; so we too will have to face all this for ourselves. And I honour you for this decision."

"I think" said the pompous young man "We none of us realised quite what we were volunteering for; but I for one cannot feel that we could back out because the challenge may prove harder than we realise. I should feel dishonoured if I stepped down when the going became hard. We will do as you suggest, Fraulein, and visit poor neighbourhoods; and therein too see who will embrace education. We will too as the good Professor Snape has suggested visit the free school in England and too the subsidised school in Germany once it has had a chance to settle down. We came for help and ideas and to see what we would be letting ourselves in for; we are finding out. It is good, Fraulein, that Professor Snape and his relatives have a realistic idea of what we shall find else had we based our ideas on the well-run and smooth school that is here we should perhaps have been disillusioned in so unpleasant a way that we gave up in despair. I for one would rather know the worst that we might have to face."

"The worst that you might have to face" said Irmi "If you are to be in a city location that is, could be racists of either race, human or goblin, storming the school with fire and missiles because the purity of their own is being sullied by having to work with THEM, whichever THEM they may mean. You will undoubtedly have those who bully part bred children who may be despised by either side; for in poor neighbourhoods, unless there IS neighbourliness they are more likely to be also illegitimate, by rape or by being the children of prostitutes; and remember, goblin communities make a girl become a prostitute if she has been raped in most cases. Some human communities also. And the innocent child is the sufferer. In a closed society like a school, bullying CAN become endemic – see Durmstrang as an example – and such marginalised children may be driven even to suicide. It won't be easy. But it WILL be rewarding when your children learn to treat each other as people and with respect; and when they run to you to tell you news of their families; and when they finally graduate with pride. And you MUST be proud of them; for if you despise your students they will become despicable people. Give them dignity. See past the squalor of their poor clothing and dirty skins. Reach for their souls."

"I think we have learned a lot" said the minister "I for one am shocked by the level of poverty you have described; though certainly in Germany I suppose I am not really surprised. And if we find such in our own country, I WILL be making waves in the ministry. And I have every trust, Fraulein, in your word, for I can see that you have either seen this for yourself or heard of it first hand from those who have. Thank you for showing us around, and thank you too for your educative talk."

Irmi was glad when they left; but she knew that if she had made an impression on them, they would have a better chance of actually making a good go of a free school; and she genuinely wished them luck.

And then there was Gamp to struggle with.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The only real complaints about the honky-tonk flagstones were from Antti Laakkonen; but as Antti was guaranteed to complain about anything that was out of the sanctioned order of things, nobody took the blindest bit of notice; and it may be said that Blaise Paddock, who had thought the musical accompaniment to walking a little over the top, became an enthusiast about the ingenuity of the first year marauders.

"It's not half bad" remarked Rory Staines to Severus "Are you going to bring them in as supporters for the big Yule Chant? It's not like two of them aren't blooded already."

"I probably shall" said Severus "Drop the word that they need to show especial industry in doing things for the good of others as well as japes; stuff for the orphanage say. Besides if they put their creative talents to combining on something like that, they won't be driving me grey with whatever else they get up to; I have a feeling that Wilhelm and Serrick might be quite as bad in combination as James Potter and Sirius Black."

"Oy" said the portrait of James.

"Doesn't it do your heart good to have little German counterparts?" said Severus.

"I suppose" said James. "And if they're ready to be blooded, go for it, Scales mate; Albus always was cautious."

"You'd be surprised how much difference it makes being in loco parentis for them" said Severus mildly. "But I want this to work; those who feed us power will be at little risk but having more may make a difference to the health of those chanting. I certainly hope to blood them in – if they are willing. Alrik and Fyra shall tell them about it."

oOoOo

"Well, you know we were at Durmstrang" said Fyra to the other marauders in the first "And we took part in a ritual that helped protect us; so if anyone tried to hurt us the others would know. And that's why we knew we were destined to be marauders; because it's a ritual marauders do."

"Will we do it then?" asked Serrik.

"It's not something people do unless they want to" said Alrik "we were ASKED even though we were only nine. All true marauders do it and some people who support marauders; and because of it, any one who is part of it can be a focus of the magic of all the others. It's blood magic."

"It doesn't hurt very much" said Fyra "You cut your palm and say 'we be of one blood, ye and I' as you share blood with people and then you know Parseltongue and can feel all the others; it's not reading thoughts, but you're aware of all the other blooded like – like you're aware of your big toe. You know it's there but you don't think much about it unless someone stands on it. And then if someone DOES hurt one of the blooded, the rest can share it around so the pain is nothing. It's how they work the killing curse. You don't use it to cheat in exams and competitions; that's not done. But you can draw on people for important stuff. And there's going to be an important ritual to stop house elves punishing themselves in all of Europe. And Alrik and me can support people and if you want to be proper marauders you'll do it some day so we thought we'd tell you now. In case you want to help the other marauders."

"What are we waiting for?" said Wilhelm.

"For Professor Snape to give permission" said Alrik.

"He knows about it?" asked Wilhelm.

"Silly" said Fyra "HE was one of the very first Marauders like James Potter whose portrait is in the study."

"Oh. Sorry" said Wilhelm. "I guess if you have that sort of ritual going on the head almost has to know about it; or he's a pretty poor specimen. Which Professor Snape isn't" he added.

"Exactly" said Fyra. "Only if anyone has funny ideas about blood magic I guess it's better to back out now before you get too used to expecting to be a marauder."

"Is it always started in new years by someone who's been brought in early?" asked Bruno.

"No I don't think so" said Alrik. "The first ones who were brought in early were Jade and Lydia Snape; so they knew what was what when they started school. And people like Lilith Snape were born in it; so they kinda start it when they go to school. She's our age but she's a genius so she's two years up on us."

"So mostly people start to maraud and when big marauders think they're ready they let them in on the big secret?" asked Zhenga.

"I think that's the way it is" said Fyra. "And it isn't even every year either. Siegfried's blooded in the second but that's because he's adopted by Professor Snape; the next ones up are in two years but work together. In Durmstrang, the first ever marauders there were two sets of twins in two years. And Irmi is blooded but she's not a marauder, she's a supporter. Are you all up for it?"

"I have to say it sounds jolly efficient, being able to help anybody out with problems" said Bruno. "Are my sisters in?"

Fyra shook her head.

"No; I think Roseli decided she didn't want to Maraud and I don't think your biggest sister was invited."

"Well I can see why" said Bruno. "I'm in."

"Me too" said Zhenga nodding her red mop.

"Well OBVIOUSLY" said Wilhelm, with Serrik nodding.

"Good" said Fyra "I will then tell the oldest ones that you are ready when they feel it proper. It will be then before Yule because the ritual takes place on the Solstice. And having us all ready helps out."

"What will happen?" asked Wilhelm.

"Oh you will go home as usual and when they are chanting you will lend some of your strength; it will feel as though you are doing strenuous work all day, like going for a brisk walk, or digging or shifting stuff about; and you will be tired. But it means the chanters won't half kill themselves. It is said" said Fyra "That even Professor Snape was exhausted for days the time they did this ritual just for elves in England; and that now there are more blooded he dares risk the group to do all Europe."

"It's a jolly good idea" said Wilhelm "Eduard's elves aren't especially subservient; and I've never seen them punish themselves, but I made a remark about how one of his guests treated HIS elf and the poor little thing banged its head on the floor. It was gruesome; I'd do anything to see that get stopped. I told Eduard and he shrugged and said it was the way it had always been and he did not think it could be changed; and that there would always be boors who did not treat their slaves well. And I said I bet Professor Snape knew a way and he said if he did, then good luck to him."

"Well he does and we are" said Alrik. "And Jade Von Luytens was always finding errands for the elves at Durmstrang to go to England so they crossed the line that broke the compulsion; and now we get to stop it in LOADS of elves!"

oOoOo

The first year marauders, having had it hinted to them that it behoved them to come up with something clever to help people decided between them to make a dolls' house for the orphanage because playing with a family of dolls would help the orphans to see what families were supposed to be; which project grew to two dolls' houses, one human and one goblin and the teenage children of each could then be walking out together.

Zhenga was NOT pleased at the idea of being relegated, with Fyra to the sewing; Fyra sewed well as she had been the woman of the family but Zhenga was definitely a tomboy.

Fortunately Bruno was happy to sew – his mother believed all boys should know at least the basics to avoid being the brunt of bachelor jokes – and he was happy enough with his self image not to mind. Zhenga quickly learned how to use a lathe to turn Grudenthal type dolls and happily turned her transfigurational skills to make individual faces and to alter the nature of the wood for joints at elbows and knees rather than joint them in the crude muggle fashion. It took a bit more work to get the shoulders and hips to mould together and articulate, but Zhenga was stubborn and was not about to give in!

They used their metalwork classes to make the tiny metal utensils necessary; Lydia considered an actual project far more sensible than abstract exercises. And they would learn good skills in care when working in miniature.

And Serrik, with some help, made a clockwork flying horse by sabotaging a swooping curser; and Wilhelm crafted a wood carriage for it to draw.

It would take all term; but it would be a splendid Christmas gift to some of the children in the orphanage.

oOoOo

Someone else who was enjoying metalwork was Jöran Ulvaeus; and Paul grinned at him and said that he was in the same boat then as Werner Wasner in the second year. Werner was about a quarter goblin; and as Paul said, one of the criticisms that Professor Prince had of his work was that it was too tight because he got confused between working drawings – that needed to be tight – and pure artwork. As Jöran was also good at Arithmancy, Lydia, or rather, Professor Krumm as she was known here and not to be confused with Coach Krumm, took him for extra engineering drawing too, so he might have a skill to fall back on as say an architect. Jöran was rather torn here. He had never known how much he was going to enjoy metalwork and was decidedly drawn to taking his art into three dimensions. On Paul's advice he spoke – rather nervously – to Professor Prince; and found the red haired professor definitely supportive.

Callum took his art class on a field trip to see the Palais Stoclet in Belguim, borrowing Lydia to help side along apparate them all; and confunded the muggles living in it thoroughly and unscrupulously to show them the rich – and uncomfortable looking – interiors, explaining that this building was an example of _gesmptkunstwerk_ or total art work, everything designed to be a part of that house; even the clothes of the original owners. The Atlantes or Telamones that were on the tower were a forerunner to the very art deco heroic art adopted by the Nazis; but the idea of combining bronze statuary and applied bronze decoration were what he wanted to show to Jöran; and the idea that knives and forks and chairs in the dining room could all be a part of a design, not just objects made for utility. He took them the next week to the Wiener Werkstatte to see more of the work of Hoffman and of his friend Karl Moser, who was less obsessed with squares; and explained that Hoffman was nicknamed by his friends 'Quadratl' for his love of straight lines.

Jöran was blown away; and Callum negotiated that he should do part of his year's work as a project on the Wiener Werkstatte and what influenced it, and that he should use metalworking as a part of his artistic endeavour. And Jöran's parents, who had been worrying about his long letters saying how much he missed them were able to stop worrying when they started getting fitful scrawls with a lot of detail about art and metalwork and very little about how their son missed them; and 'Professor Prince says' or 'Professor Krumm says' started to be something of a mantra.

And Callum heaved a private sigh of relief that the boy's interest had been engaged past his foolish belief in his own ability and he had settled down. Parents should NEVER be allowed to rear artistic children if they could not make realistic critique!

oOoOo

Werner was also much struck by the work Callum had shown them; and begged to be permitted to produce a similar project, and use his metalwork in class. Callum was delighted; it gave two different artistic endeavours because Werner was definitely more interested in the jewellery and filigree end of the work where Jöran was drawn to the architectural and sculptural. And that was good.

And having found out that many of the upper form had an animagus form of wolf, Jöran joined the MSHG to observe them, and was sculpting wolves in clay with a view to making life size bronze castings in future years, that would snarl at intruders; after learning first with small castings. He would have to negotiate what part was art and what metalwork when he came to offer up pieces for OWL; but in the meantime he was learning, combining, and having no end of fun.

"One day" said Jöran to Paul "I'm going to do a group of statuary that represent the five core subjects of magic, as supporting columns for a school; and I'll know enough to have a bronze guinea pig in the hands of the one representing Transfiguration turn into a guinea fowl and back; and whoever represents charms will have some object hovering. And some metallic vapour will rise constantly and return in the cauldron of the potioneer."

"That's jolly good; you ARE a visionary now you've found what you're best at" said Paul "It'd be dandy for the portico of a brand new, purpose built school; and I say, I know there are people who want to get a school going in Scandinavia so perhaps you'll get the commission to build it!"

"I would LOVE that!" said Jöran.

Paul passed the conversation on to Severus.

After all, most people setting up new schools seemed to go through his guardian one way or another.

oOoOo

Jöran might be a bit of a parents' baby and rather a prig in some ways, but his enthusiasm was rubbing off those corners; and he was by no means as much of a prig as Antti Laakkonen; and indeed had improved visibly when Blaise Paddock made an off the cuff comment that maybe it was something about Scandinavians as the Swedish kid in the first was a bit of a mutt too; and Jöran did NOT want to be taken as anything like Antti, who whined.

Being given the gift of learning that Antti and he were considered alike was enough to effect a cure of squealing that he was being bullied and threatening to report people.

The first years responded by being warmer towards him; and that was its own reward.

Poor Antti had never learned; and Severus for one felt sincerely sorry for him, for the boy was kind hearted and well meaning. He was also entirely humourless and had a deep belief in his duty to prevent his classmates from doing anything mischievous.

If he had been a swot who was good at classwork and was uninterested in anything outside of it, they would probably have taken it better; but poor Antti was a slapdash worker that he had only barely improved upon over three years in school and was inclined to actually bend his efforts into finding out what worrying thing the Bee Marauders might be up to next.

He spent a lot of time in magically induced slumber since the others had not the heart to jinx him into a ball as one might with the normal sneak. And while he was asleep he was not worrying his sanctimonious little self what devilment the rest might be up to, as Yrdl put it.

oOoOo

All the first now belonged to the MSHG and were in general in good odour with the staff too.

Gabiden, Paul and Alrik might be poor at Arithmancy; but the rest were above average with Zhenga and Jöran definitely the sort that would usually please Hermione's heart had not even they been surpassed by Fyra and Bruno. And even the three who were poor were not dire; so Hermione was extremely happy and held forth about what a contrast they were to the second whose bright spot was Evadne Horrocks who occasionally aspired to an 'E' grade where the rest were lucky to creep out of the depths of 'T'. It was not an entirely unfair assessment since Werner, for all his brilliance in artistic endeavour could scarcely add up, which as Hermione said crossly was preposterous for someone of goblin blood, like an elf that couldn't do charms. As Solange and Conrad had returned homework in which they variously made seven factorial – the number of feet in a wizarding mile – some decimal number less than one in Solange's case and around eleven thousand in Conrad's, and Werner had returned the brilliant answer 'more than seven' Hermione was a little snippy with the second. Solange had divided seven by each of the preceding numbers; Conrad was, Hermione said, awa' with the fairies; and Werner was just innumerate and could care less.

The first had a good record all round; Gabiden and Reaz had problems with potions and Bertha had trouble getting her beetle to become a button; and fortunately Krait was having a good pregnancy and was not too snippy with it. Of others with performance problems there was only Serrik who had trouble with Latin never mind learning Greek letters. But to balance that Zhenga was a brilliant potioneer and none of the rest poor; Wilhelm was a star with charms and none of them had trouble; Reaz was a natural with transfigurations and Alrik good in the field too, and Zhenga not far behind; and the whole class, to the delight of Heather Burns Tuthill, had taken to Geomancy like they were born to it, especially Wilhelm and Fyra both of whom she suspected of having the talent of place sense, which was a rare enough skill to nurture and to have two in one class was fantastic, especially as both were good enough at Arithmancy – especially the brilliant Fyra – to exploit it.

Wilhelm and Zhenga vied for overall top place in the class; and Fyra fighting up behind, and Lydia Grant in there too for being a fair all rounder and an 'E' average student.

Ron considered it a down point that apart from Wilhelm, who was competent, and Lydia Grant who was like all her siblings in being good at quidditch, the rest might as well be riding, as Ron put it, ruddy muggle vacuum cleaners. And Serrik had actually asked if they couldn't play quidpolo instead.

"Never mind Ron" said Severus "At least the Quidditch OWL has been approved and you can start to teach it as an exam subject for NEXT year's OWLs."

"And after a couple of years we shan't have anyone to take it at this rate" said Ron in disgust "Will we, Viktor?"

"Oh next year might well irritate Hermiowininny again and be good at quidditch; who can say?" said Viktor equably.

The Quidditch OWL was enough to permit the recipient to skip half of the written test for a referee, or to be accepted directly as an official; and was a way of giving a qualification in something with some pretensions of academe to those with few skills off a broom. It was also a way for those who loved the game but who were not good enough to be scouted to demonstrate that interest when applying for jobs as coaches or officials. And though Fred Visick and George Ingate did not feel able to take it alongside their other OWLs for the coming academic year they planned to take it – as well as a metalworking OWL – alongside their NEWTS, or possibly in their lower sixth year, when Arbrek and Reinulf would also take it as part of their other OWLs. Arbek took the exam because he loved the game and meant to play professionally; Reinulf because he loved the game and was not good enough to play professionally but had no real goal in mind yet as a career.

What exams were taken in any one year would depend on the talents in that year; and that could never be predicted. And so far only the second had managed to produce a full range with two musicians, an artist and a pair of quidditch geniuses; and more important in Severus' mind, a true potioneer.

And the first likely to make an overall better academic showing even if, of the new exams, they could but boast just two artists and a good quidditch player.

oOoOo

The next excitement of the term – unless one counted Silvina Snape and Julian Finch working out how to play 'Popcorn' with carefully timed jumps between them on the musical flagstones – was provided by the third.

Zoë Gesler was never the world's best transfigurationist; but she managed to keep up in class, especially with the encouragement of her friend Sarah Elliot who had been sidetracked by the study of the Wiener Werkstatte into looking into the Glasgow School and who now had everything decorated with Glasgow Roses. Zoë thought her friend very clever; and too very clever about telling her how to manage difficult parents who had been causing Zoë some trouble with their bickering until Sarah had told her how to make them feel guilty enough to stop. Zoë's grades had risen and although she was never going to be a high flyer academically, whatever she could achieve on a broom, she was able to keep up with the class. Zoë was one of those hoping to study for the quidditch OWL with her electives; and Sarah was as admiring of her friend's ability on a broom as Zoë was of Sarah's art. As Zoë was pure blood and Sarah was muggleborn it was an attraction of opposites; save that one might, as Krait said, usually expect the athlete to be hearty and outgoing and the artist to be introverted and quiet when in fact this pair were the other way round. Sarah had learned, as a diplomat's daughter, to deal in a cheerful friendly way with anyone; Zoë kept herself to herself for fear of disloyalty to either of her parents by saying anything that might disparage them. She was learning to lose some of her reticence but was still quiet and inclined to be a loner bar her friendship with Sarah.

All of which being so, Zoë was the last person in the world that anyone might expect to make a disturbance.

The third were busy doing cross species switches; Krait believed that a little theory early on helped tremendously with practical applications, and though it was usually a fourth year skill she had had a great deal of success in introducing – without the terminology being used – the concept of assimilative correlation from an early stage.

Consequently Krait had set the class to consider what animal they felt was closest to their own familiar; and to research that animal with the blanket ban on anything larger than a medium sized dog. None of the third were really awkward – even the Breuer twins – but Krait had heard of Bella Black's suggestion in Hogwarts that Owl to cat to tiger was quite feasible. Which it was, unless you took into account the amount of disruption a large Bengal tiger might cause in a classroom. Bella had a tiger obsession.

Most of the class possessed owls for communicating with their family; Beta, Rudi and Lucy had cats that had been previous years' NEWT level transfiguration results; Sylvana had a nightingale to go with her surname; Vava had a guinea pig and Hette had a hamster.

Hette had been vetoed turning her hamster into an elephant via Hannibal and taking into account a children's story she had once read about the travels of a small boy and his pet hamster and baby elephant; and was instead turning her pet into a pig via ham and because hamsters were not that different to guinea pigs anyway; and Krait allowed that since assimilative correlation was a very personal business and so long as the association worked for the transfigurationist, it was all good.

Vava's guinea pig was going by its other name, cavie, through the German for raven, rabe; which sounded close enough if said fast, declared Vava. Again if it worked for her, Krait had no problems.

The rest were being more or less conventional, even Sylvana, the class star, whose nightingale was going through the correlation of martingale into a martin, another small brown bird; and because Sylvana was ambitious, thence into a marten to transfigure from bird to mammal. Krait had every expectation that she would succeed.

All of the owls were to become Persian cats for the appearance of the big eyes; Beta's cat was to go bilingually from korschka, cat in Russian, to korora, the fairy penguin as named by the Maori and discovered by Beta in a dictionary when looking for something a bit more interesting to turn her cat into than an owl. Rudi was sticking with cat to owl and Lucy was going via Puss to Puss Moth.

And all went very well except that Zoë levelled her wand at her owl and miaowed loudly as she turned not her familiar but herself into a cat.

Krait rescued her quickly.

"Did you lose your intellect or were you fully aware of what you had done?" she asked.

"I was aware; it was scary but I say, don't cats have good hearing?" said Zoë.

"They do; and perhaps it means you may wish to become a cat animagus some day" said Krait. "See if you can't do it the right way this time."

Zoë had no more trouble; but it had been a bit of a departure. And maybe worth thinking about being a cat animagus at that; one had, they said, attributes like one's animagus form and being a quidditch player, having reflexes like a cat might not come amiss!

The twins had to gently tease of course; but Zoë smiled.

"Well I learned more than you from that" she said. "I found out that being a cat feels good. And I had a better sense of smell than I might have liked from Hette's offering."

"Well good on you then" said Vava, whose Guinea Pig was sulking slightly after having disliked being a raven. And Hette was storing up a new spell – _evanesco _– which Professor Malfoy had used when her hamster, overcome at being a pig, had made a mess on the floor, which smell Zoë had mentioned.

"All experiences are learning experiences" agreed Hette cheerfully.

The third Marauder in this year, Johanna, wished perhaps that she might have been a little less pedestrian than in turning her owl into a cat and had been more adventurous like her fellow marauders; but though she was not behind at transfigurations, it was charms in which SHE shone.

oOoOo

Zoë was gaining a lot of confidence as she had been promoted this year to the first team in Quidditch; she was playing keeper, a departure from her second team placement as chaser, since the first team chasers all worked well together; but she found she enjoyed the position even more.

They played a couple of fixtures against Swiss and Austrian teams; the Lucerne Longbrooms were interested in Arbrek and glad to get the chance to play against him to see how well he did; and though the school team lost it was only after a long hard battle and Arbrek's grab for the snitch only really for pride's sake as the Longbrooms were very good in offence. Zoë was most upset that she had failed to keep out so many goals; but Fred and Peter Lowther slapped her on the back and Fred said,

"Cheer up kid; we lost to a better team. You did sterling work; hey, we'll work on your broomsurfing too because that really makes sense to know as a keeper."

Zoë was comforted; the beater twins did not give false praise.

"Their keeper was three parts acromantula I swear" said Kate Grant "All legs and arms and if he was under six foot four I'm a lemon."

"Which she isn't" said her sister Emily. "I'd seriously think about signing with them, Arbrek, if they offer it to you; they take it seriously and they don't seem to skimp on any position, and play as a real team."

"I certainly shall be considering it" said Arbrek. "To play for my own country would be nice, even though I have been offered a job too by the Luxemburg team. I should not want to play for the Berne Bears; they are thugs."

oOoOo

They got in a game against the Vienna Vampires before the weather broke; and this was a quicker game, and Arbrek snatched the snitch before the professional team had had much chance to outscore the school team; and Emily Grant was also quick to point out that two saves that Zoë made had made the difference between winning and drawing. The Vampires were wont to be a little sulky at being beaten by a bunch of kids; and George Ingate said loudly 'sour er, blood' about the attitude.

The Vampires retired in what they believed was dignified silence and what the Prince Peak team privately thought resembled more nearly a fit of the sulks.

And then the snow came.

It was almost Halloween and half term in any case; so the school applied itself to work instead of quidditch to bring them up to the short holiday.

The blood group assisted of course as Krait gave birth to her seventh child; he arrived in time, as Krait put it, for her to have breakfast on the twenty-fifth of October, looking no more like a pickled pumpkin than any baby and as blonde as any Malfoy like his sister Merope. Merope, rising four, was invited to admire another baby with her colouring, was unimpressed and suggested swapping him for a pony. Baby was to be named David Augustus, as a nod to the choice of name Krait's mother had made for her, though as Krait said, Augustus was a better name for a boy than Augusta was for a girl so long as one did not recall what a little tick Octavian had been before he changed his name as Emperor.

David subsequently turned out to have black eyes, not the Malfoy violet as Merope had; it would be a stunning combination and possibly rather compelling.

oOoOo

This year's Halloween half term would be a midweek holiday, Wednesday and Thursday. Which being so, the school had the previous weekend as well to consider the competition; which was this year to be the best or most ingeniously dressed or decorated broomstick.

This was a competition that might appeal to the wilder imaginations as well as to the more pedestrian who made paper flowers to adorn their broomsticks – those without their own broom being permitted to use a school one of course – with streamers and ribbon bows as their fancy took them.

The muggle marauders, who had heard Professor Ron on the subject of the first years, used cardboard and folded paper joined carefully to make a long corrugated tube to turn their brooms into vacuum cleaners, each of the four being a different make, from Hoover to Henry, Hotpoint to Dyson. Randolph got lumbered with the Dyson for being the hardest; and being Randolph he managed to fit the twig end with a cylinder of cellophane off chocolate frogs with charmed paper wrappers whirling about inside.

The Muggle Marauders won a special prize for ingenuity and humour if not keeping strictly within the bounds of the competition.

Sarah and Zoë decided to interpret rather freely the term 'dress' and added balloon heads to their broomsticks and dress them in robes with the sleeves stuffed with underwear and the hands made of gloves stuffed with hankies.

They solemnly waltzed in with their broomstick partners.

Zhenga had not used a school flying broom.

She had instead borrowed a brush such as the castle elves used with a dustpan, enchanted it to fly, and trailed from its rear a banner that read 'when I grow up I want to be a Firebolt'.

Siegfried had dressed a broomstick as the ride for a chess king, complete with cardboard white king; George Ingate had made a broom to carry the Queen of the May and had borrowed small Ismenia Snape to be the said queen. Silvina had added pipes and ocarinas to hers to play random and wailing melodies as it flew, the airflow activating the instruments; and Werner had added spurious gears and cogs to his, made of cardboard covered with foil, and flapping foil wings .

Wilhelm, Serrik, Bruno and Alrik combined to turn their brooms into kayaks and flew in, facing the wrong way, rowing like mad on cardboard oars; and Fyra made a howdah for hers.

Yrdl draped hers with muslin with a papier-mâché head and sleeves wafting by charm and declared it to be Zalmoxes or some other constipated ghost; and BaHH was foolhardy enough to enlist Spassmacher, the castle poltergeist, to make a broom that was reminiscent of a circus caravan, complete with circus music, which was about his limit to enchant. Spassmacher enjoyed clowning about on the broom and taking risks BaHH reckoned even he would be loath to do and so having a mad volunteer came in handy.

As AHHa and the Jorkins twins had been liberal in the use of fireworks to decorate their brooms, Severus remarked to Krait that the Hallow-Hellibores were certainly on form; but what sort of form he preferred not to say.

Most of the rest stuck to prettying their brooms up; and some of the effects were very pretty indeed, especially Rose Hubble's which also included an arrangement of fairies.

Fortunately the staff had laid in a good supply of chocolate as prizes since there were several first prizes for ingenuity at least.

And then there were the usual party games and a feast; and Rory declared that Halloween got better every year!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

After Halloween one might expect the usual silliness to start over the Yule ball. Dancing on Saturday evenings did much to alleviate some of the shyness it is true; but still partners had to be chosen.

The sixth managed it with relative dispatch.

Irmi was going with her Sebastian; Darryl asked Elsie Blackwood; Adrian asked Emily and Evangeline went with Yukya, who had perfected a tall form and was looking forward to being an elf to aid with the big chant. In the lower sixth Peter and Fred asked Pru and Frieda; Rory asked Muriel; and Milos went with Leneli as they had got into the habit of it. This left Randolph, Marius and Mungo as spare males for the girl-heavy fifth year.

The fifth did not muck around much either, Fred and Flo Visick going by their usual friendships in picking Vya for Fred and George for Flo; they were a foursome after all. Silvina asked Julian as he did not have two left feet, in half mocking reprise of the way he had asked her last year; AHHa grabbed Sandalla before the Jorkins twins could make any fatuous comments about twins and Randolph asked Svetlana as another one time muggle. The Jorkins twins plumped for Rose and Hanna-leena, who were as joined at the hip as if they had been twins; Marius asked academic and musical Sara Barbary, who pointed out that she HAD a boyfriend and so long as he was aware of that, only her boyfriend had finished school, she was happy just to dance with him; which suited Marius just fine. And Mungo was left to choose shy Yelizaveta or sporty Kate Grant.

Mungo claimed a lack of interest in quidditch and a fine interest in animals to claim Veta, as the girl was known for short; for Veta loved all horses; and Kate glad not to go with anyone who was not into quidditch!

This year the oldest of the Bee Marauders and their class must go; and Arbek boldly invited Kate Grant and was accepted. They would not be in any way talking about anything more romantic than perfect catches in the beautiful game.

BaHH asked Batty and Crow asked Yrdl; which was the marauders sorted out. Emil and Cecilia decided that as twins they might as well go together; Blaise asked Roseli – to Eve Cherrytree's disgust as she considered Blaise a suitable partner and the only reasonable English person left in her form as BaHH was too insane to count and Crow just as insane to dance with a goblin and Blaise hardly any better for choosing a half goblin. Letting them have education was one thing, but Eve was horrified! She was left with a choice of Reinulf Grindler – a German – or Antti Laakkonen, a Finn. Of the two, Antti was the lesser of two evils, and sulkily Eve agreed to dance with him. Reinulf, laughing, said that made him the wallflower; and invited Sylvana Nachtigall of the third because their families were close. Sylvana agreed, she said, because the eats were supposed to be good.

Sylvana actually rather admired Reinulf but was not about to admit it, especially as he still called her 'funny face'.

oOoOo

"That went off too quickly and quietly; what's the hitch going to be?" said Krait suspiciously.

"Eve Cherrytree" said Dione, cynically. "She reckons she can get her hooks into either Crow or Blaise; she knows that the Langstaffs are considered a cut above most of the Hellibore-Cackle families, and her cousin at Hogwarts is going to know that Blaise's cousin knocks about with Malfoys. So do the Hallow-Hellibores of course but I can see any girl being chary of BaHH unless she's as nutty as him."

"I'll alert the prefects to keep an eye on THAT situation and nip it in the bud before it begins" said Krait.

"Why didn't anyone keep an eye on situations and nip them in the bud at Hogwarts?" asked Hermione.

"Because Hogwarts never was so well disciplined as Severus has it here" said Krait calmly "I certainly jumped on anything I found in Slytherin House; but Flitters could hardly barge into girls' dorms to read them the riot act, and McGonagall never cared to; she relied on honour in Gryffindor house. Which is all very well up to a point, but you can achieve more by relying on honour AND keeping several poems ready to copy than just relying on honour."

"I guess too we DID find some remarkably silly girls here when we arrived and cracked down hard" said Dione "To stop anything before it started – the Tugwood twins at fourteen years old remember."

"There is that" said Hermione. "Well good luck to the prefects; Eve might have come after the new school started but she really is a Cackle's girl by nature."

"Because we elected not to turn away those who traditionally came here" said Krait. "We ARE instituting the exam now save for younger siblings only. It will – it SHOULD make a difference."

"Good" said Dione "They were all like Elisa Mourne and me only wet around the edges."

"Well the pair of you turned out very well" said Krait kissing her on the cheek. "And Elisa married to Francis Davenport with a boy and a girl to keep her happy. And he's doing well at the free school and Hawk thinking of setting up another school with Lynx, perhaps with Fabian and Maud when she leaves school; and then Senagra and Elisa can fit in to teach in their places."

"We're getting a good education system set up" said Hermione "And I do really think it's an excellent secondary aim of marauders to protect society by teaching."

"It sort of almost happened by accident too" said Krait "Happy accident. Rather like reviving the marauders in the first place; and as I recall that was the Malfoy twins, Rom and Kinat too. The New Marauders started a few things; and bless them for it."

"Hear, hear" said Hermione.

oOoOo

Eve's idea of wresting her property – Blaise – from the obviously grasping scheming hands of the blithely unconscious Roseli was typical of the slyer type of silly girl; like dropping a shrinking charm on Roseli's clothes overnight.

Roseli was starting to panic that her clothes were too tight; and Yrdl pointed her wand.

"_Finite incantatem_" she said "That better?"

"Oh! YES!" said Roseli in relief "What happened to them?"

"I'd think" said Yrdl "That some mean nasty minded person dropped a curse on your duds and made them seem too tight."

"And the person who knows what was done must have done it" said Eve "Everyone knows it was a goblin boy who was the one who made the fuss about half breeds."

"Watch it" said Batty "That's a racist remark, Cherrytree; as well one might say it was a human who was Lord Voldemort. And why should Yrdl put a curse on Roseli, anyway? There's no quarrel between them. I've no quarrel with Roseli either; have you?"

"Why should I?" said Eve.

"Dunno" said Batty "But you've always been the one with queer ideas and sniffy about goblins and half goblins when you think you can get away with it."

"She is angry that Blaise Paddock preferred to invite a lady to the ball not her" said Cecilia shrewdly. "I expect she takes it as an insult that he prefers someone not fully human to someone without any gentility like her."

"You are insulting" hissed Eve.

"Yes" said Cecilia cheerfully "And you are offensive. And listen, my good puppy – you aren't mentally old enough to be a bitch – if anything untoward happens to Roseli – or Yrdl – I go to the head about you."

"Sneak!" said Eve.

"Sneaking is about mischief; this is nastiness" said Cecilia "You're the type that would try to damage a painting of Roseli's to hurt her; and that's not mischief, my girl, it's criminal damage; and you'd be liable for at least a whacking great fine and besides, as all her work goes into her portfolio towards her exam it's interfering with exam results and THAT is an expelling offence – AND a criminal offence into the bargain. So when you're feeling spiteful, think long and hard before you do anything, my fine puppy; because there are laws to prevent your sort from causing damage. Now grow up and accept that Blaise didn't want to take you; and I heard him tell Roseli that at least she's a decent sort to ask because otherwise the only person he could take would be the Finnish Flobberworm; he'd rather dance with Antti than with you."

"Huh, I should think any decent boy would rather dance with Spass than with HER" said Batty.

"I'd rather dance with Spass than with Antti" said Yrdl "He's not as boring."

"Poor Antti" said Batty.

It was a measure of Antti's lack of intentional harm causing that the adjective most often applied to him was 'poor'; and pity felt for him that he would not even have been able to work out why.

Eve flounced off hiding her face. In truth she had considered spoiling some of Roseli's paintings, thinking only of hurting the girl without considering consequences; or even that it would be considered criminal damage. That was a shock; it really wasn't fair. And surely Blaise would not prefer to dance with Antti than with her?

She asked him on the way to breakfast,

"If Roseli cried off, would you go to the ball with me, Blaise?"

Blaise blinked.

"No thanks" he said. "Besides, you ARE engaged to Antti; it's just not done to cry off for another partner; so ill bred. Besides if Roseli had been engaged to dance, I guess I'd have asked Lucy Ingram who's a fun kid or one of Yrdl's sisters. Or any one of the girls in the third; I'm not so strapped for a partner that I have to ask you, you know

"That's not very tactful" Eve tried to be arch "It almost sounds as though you don't like me!"

"Well I don't really" said Blaise. "You make sly comments about people and you're a snob without anything to be snobbish about and your hands feel puggy when I have to dance with you on Saturdays so I try not to. That's why you're partnering Antti; because you're the two nobody else wants to dance with."

"THAT, Mr Paddock, was rude" Severus had come up behind him. "Apologise to Miss Cherrytree please."

"Please sir, I'm not sure I can" said Blaise "Because how does one apologise for telling the truth?"

"One apologises, Mr Paddock" said Severus, fighting the laughter threatening to well up "For your abominably rude and tactless way of putting it; and for coming out with an unpalatable truth in the first place."

"Oh. Yes sir, I think I see" said Blaise dubiously. "Cherrytree, I'm sorry I was tactless enough to let you know what everyone thinks and that I didn't say anything I said with more tact. Only sir, how can you use tact to penetrate erumpant hide?"

"Was it necessary to make the point?" said Severus.

"Well if I want her to leave me alone it was" said Blaise.

"Hmm" said Severus. "Miss Cherrytree, I suggest you'll have less upset if you steer clear of the truly tactless and untutored tongue of Mr Paddock. Have you not yet got a partner for the ball then?"

"I – well I was going to have to go with Antii Laakkonen" said Eve.

"And you also have a partner Mr Paddock?"

"Oh yes sir, I'm going with Roseli and I don't see that she's likely to cry off whatever Cherrytree hints."

Severus regarded Eve.

"I shall, Miss Cherrytree, be remarkably disappointed to learn that any nastiness like shrinking ballgowns or shoes or itching powder or any other unpleasant prank should happen to make Miss Accola feel as though coming to the ball would be difficult" he said. "I WOULD consider it a serious matter of discipline."

"I – I really don't know what you mean sir" said Eve.

"Then let us hope you continue in such unsullied innocence" said Severus "And Mr Paddock whatever you were about to say, try for once in your life not to open your mouth and put your foot in it; good morning."

Blaise had been about to blurt out that was THAT what she had meant by Roseli crying off; and he glared at Eve as Severus swept away.

"Touch Roseli and you so will wish you had not" he said "Just because I'm not a marauder and the staff think me mostly inoffensive doesn't mean I wouldn't stop being inoffensive if you act the goat. Just because you look like one when you have that mean look in your eye doesn't mean you have to act like one."

This was too much for Eve who burst into tears and fled.

She kept herself very much to herself for the remainder of the term.

oOoOo

Severus was writing end of term reports for the first; since everyone else had only end of year reports. And what a joy it was that the weakest in the class was Gabiden, who was weak on potions and Arithmancy but above average at charms and runes and only average across the board otherwise. He was borderline for the new academic standards; but he was here as a favour to a protégé of Jade's and he COULD keep up.

It was a far cry from having once written, at Hogwarts, not long after he had started teaching there that ….how did it go? 'to find Rupert's intellect I fear I should need a goblin miner to delve so deep'. And then, 'If Arabella's mind ever attends school with her body I have yet to observe that phenomenon'. And 'if Denzil's intelligence were any lower he would need to be planted out in the greenhouses and watered twice a week. As it is he is at risk of being accidentally served for the fish course.'

It had helped to be viciously snide; unfair though it undoubtedly was.

But not, in the cases he could recall, in any wise untrue. And he sympathised with Blaise over Eve.

He sat down to write pleasant reports for all the first; and was delighted that he could genuinely write for Jöran,

"Jöran is a talented boy who has overcome the difficulties of too much inappropriate praise to find his strengths and address his weaknesses with a determination that does him credit. He is in no wise behind in class in any subject but potions; which I regret but accept that talent in one field may be balanced by a blind spot in another. More importantly he is bidding fair to be a fine arithmancer and his taster course in metalwork – at which he also excels – has given him further direction to his art. He has become a fully participating class member and is on good terms with the other artist in the class."

One could not say yet that the boy was making friends as such; but he was drifting into the group with Paul, Reaz and Gabiden; a nice little foursome. And one might say of Reaz that he was another talented child in the family; and of Gabiden that he was above average in a couple of his classes and might work hard in the few subjects he was weaker on.

Paul scarcely needed a report; as it would be written to himself! And apart from Hermione who sighed over his Arithmancy, there had been no poor reports on Paul; and Severus knew that his staff would not hold back just because he was the boy's guardian.

One might write too of Bertha that the family had sent him another hard worker; again Bertha was never going to shine, but she had no trouble keeping up. And of Lydia Grant that the family Quidditch tradition was still holding up. And too that Lydia was a good 'E' average student; which was more than Emily or Kate always were, being academically more erratic.

Then it was the turn of the marauders.

"Zhenga is a dear little girl who is a high flyer as well as a lovely child. She is a credit to her parents in all ways and if she may be said to truly excel at potions, this is in no wise to denigrate her other skills which are also well above average." he wrote. Ihor had done well to adopt her; the child had so much potential! He picked up another form. "Fyra is a hard worker and a very pleasant child into the bargain. She is talented in Arithmancy and also has a rare talent in Geomancy; which leads me to have to pun that she will go far" he wrote. Next; "Alrik is one of those at the root of most of the mischief in the first with a degree of efficiency that at present he is also applying to his work; if he continues to apply himself to his work as hard as to his mischief I shall be well content" he wrote. Alrik, Wilhelm, Serrik and Bruno were at least as bad as James and Sirius. They needed some minor squashing so they did not take the mischief side of marauding too far. For Bruno he wrote 'Bruno is a brilliant Arithmancer and I am hoping that he will continue to use that in his classwork as well as in devising ingenious spells for the purpose of mischief". Yes, it was not just the mischief of those four; it was the efficiency with which they planned – especially with the two girls involved as well. Severus did not know officially about the tribulations suffered by Leneli Accola when being a prefect had gone rather to her head and she had been throwing her weight around rather; but he had heard via the Muggle Marauders who had heard from Pru that Leneli had been keen to investigate when her brother had reported to her that Wilhelm and Serrik had been out of their bed; and the boys claimed that Serrik was taking Wilhelm to the nurse as he felt sick when Leneli stopped them to read them a lecture; and that as she had delayed them, Wilhelm couldn't wait any more.

WHAT they had concocted the false vomit from Severus did not want to know, little monkeys; but Leneli had had hysterics and Wilhelm had said in a hurt voice that he HAD been hurrying until she stopped him.

Severus wrote,

"Wilhelm is brilliant, innovative, clever and inventive. When he applies all this brilliance to his work instead of only half of it while the other half is on mischief bent he will fly high. Somehow I suspect he will fly high anyway but it would be nice to have a respite sometimes from his brilliance in any but the field of academe."

The self-folding flying exam papers had been funny though and Hermione getting crosser and crosser as she tried to catch them; and all six Marauders had received a stiff impot for THAT, doing some nasty calculations in base sixteen.

He moved on.

"I might say that Serrik could easily find himself led into trouble by his friend Wilhelm if only I thought Serrik was not involved with some of the leading. Serrik is however a shrewd boy and knows when not to go too far with mischief. I fancy he will manage to both enjoy himself at school and come away with a good crop of qualifications and leave the rest of us with a good crop of grey hairs."

Well, that was the lot; and now he would have the six brought blindfold to the marauding room to blood in as they had showed willing to help with THAT side of marauding; and too what a fine job they had made of the two dolls' houses. Any little girl was going to love playing with them; and a subtle idea that it should teach them about being a family! This group of six marauders really were some of the brightest and the best; most had a few shining beacons but it was not always that a whole group was so very much MORE than average high flyers. They reminded him very much of the New Marauders; who were ubiquitous.

Hmm and a good name that was for them; the Ubiquitous Marauders.

They were everywhere too; they had already found the secret passage into his office and had stayed, little horrors, to make coffee for him.

Just like Hawk, Abraxus, Rom, Kinat and Willow would have done.

oOoOo

The six new marauders were bubbling with joy as they slipped out of their beds to meet by the main staircase at midnight; and although Jöran might mutter sleepily that the four boys were insane fools to waste their precious rest he would at least not report them

They gave Jöran credit that even before he started to shake down he would not have reported them for that, only if they had tried to involve him in midnight fun.

And at the bottom of the stairs, blindfolds appeared out of nowhere and they were hustled by giggling people through narrow unknown passages and up steep stairs.

And one of the giggles surely belonged to Madam Parnassus!

Fyra and Alrik knew the extent of the blood group in Prince Peak; they could feel them. It was a bit of a shock to the others however!

"Crumbs Madam Granger I never imagined YOU Marauding!" said Wilhelm tactlessly.

"I was one of the first new generation marauders actually Wilhelm" said Hermione "With Harry Potter; Ron was the other original one and we collected Krait, Draco, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom; he's headmaster of the free school in London."

"Actually" said Krait "As I recall I did the collecting; you three were blundering about trying to stop Harry falling apart at the seams and following him into each of Tom Riddle's traps as he set them. He listened to my nasty sarcasm where your sweet reason fell on the deaf ears of the terminally Gryffindorish heroic male."

"Well the nasty tongue hasn't changed" said Hermione cheerfully. "Yes you kids we ARE human out of school; and we were once fairly heedless brats too. And now it's time to collect you lot too."

And then they were all slashing their palms and joining; and the synchronised heartbeat joined them in the love beyond love that was the blood group; and each of the newly inducted Ubiquitous Marauders knew as they hissed

_**ssss**__we be of one blood ye and_ I_**ssss**_ that they would willingly die for their fellows; and that there was no need to be embarrassed about admitting to loving them all.

Finishing the ceremony with cocoa and marshmallows helped too.

"You DO know how to run a good ritual, Severus" said Wilhelm.

Severus gave a thin smile.

"I have run rather a lot; I suppose it's practice" he said.

"DO clean your teeth on your way back to bed" adjured Hermione.

"And next time you explore these passages you will be able to find this room; that until you are brought inside is hidden under Fidelius Charm" said Severus. "And in this room is the book of all wickedness; which holds sundry random useful information that is written in as it is discovered, like such jinxes as marauders invent or er, acquire. Over time you will be told certain marauder secrets; some of which those who are in the know would lay down their lives to guard. Being a marauder is a lifetime commitment; and that life is always at the disposal of your fellows. You have showed a serious enough attitude to take the step of involving you young; as too we could use your aid. Lecture over; back to bed and don't expect any of the staff to be anything but as starchy as usual tomorrow or subsequently – unless you call marauder business. And it had better BE marauder business. Good night to you; if you don't need your sleep I certainly do and I'VE been wrestling with end of term reports all afternoon."

They murmured a good night and went back to bed exhausted but jubilant!

oOoOo

The last few days of term showed brilliant sunshine, so Severus cancelled lessons and took the school sledging and skiing. It was a shame to waste it after all; and as he said severely to Emily Grant when she made noises about Quidditch, Quidditch was a game you could play anywhere; and did she really want to waste her last winter in the Alps passing up on winter sports?

Emily considered; and gave in. Quidditch was her life, but skiing was fun too; and truth to tell she had not actually considered that it WAS her last winter in the Alps.

Emily was wondering suddenly if it might be worth while applying to Englebert Hellibore for a job teaching sport to the girls at his snob school, just to stay in the mountains; even if Hellibore's Academy in Switzerland did not have quite so perfect a location as the Prinzhorn did here in Austria.

And this was her last chance to be a giddy schoolgirl; so she might as well enjoy it!

Irmi decided that as one of the Wolves of Prince Peak she would decorate the Great Hall for the Ball as the Jungle Book; with the Council Rock covered with tiger skin – a carefully transfigured old rug she found in the attic – and a good job it was, as Krait murmured to Severus, that Bella Black was not here to make representations about ill treatment of tigers, even Lungri the lame one, as the humans called Shere Khan. The Hall itself was a clearing in the jungle and festoons of evergreens transfigured into jungle greenery. The walls of course were subject to illusion, and Irmi involved the muggle marauders as well as Sebastian and Darryl to pull off a chant to make creatures of the Jungle Book slip through the trees, including a bare brown boy; and Chil the kite hovered in the roof, giving his sharp cry from time to time.

She asked the Broomstick Boys to provide music as they were associated with the school, and were besides coming in for the twelve hour chant; they were to be secondary chanters, not being blooded, and arrived early so they could say hello to everyone first.

The décor was enthusiastically received with a spontaneous cheer by the ballgoers; after all, the lower sixth and the fifth were the first juniors who had had the privilege of having been read to by Severus in the evenings, working through the Just So stories and all the Jungle Books that had led, Severus recalled with surprise, from an impot set to sundry members of the fifth when they were new juniors. Reading twice a week to the junior common room had become an institution; and one Severus enjoyed, with the two junior forms – and a few invited older ones – curled up on cushions around his feet in front of the fire with cocoa and biscuits.

It was hard to realise that this year's first years were the fifth to be introduced to Kipling, and Leon Garfield and all the good old tales; and interesting to note that favoured reading in the upper forms ranged from 'Kim' from the third up through 'Stalky and Co' in the fourth and fifth to 'The Day's Work' in the sixth. And that sundry of the fifth had borrowed what was essentially a book for adults was evidenced by Fred and George – HOW those names always seemed to come together– chanting 'rigidity, rigidity, absolute unvarying rigidity, rigidity' as a means to meld together two metals in metalwork that could not alloy without magic.

Lydia, being equally familiar with Kipling, took it in her stride and had praised them for a good choice of chant.

oOoOo

The ball being underway, the evening went with a real swing; the Broomstick Boys played a few of their own compositions for form's sake, but mostly played good Christmas numbers and old fashioned dance music, with their own twist and pzazz to it as Crys put it.

Severus was not quite sure how they managed to turn 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas' into a rock number; but it worked, and actually he liked it better than the original; though that was not hard.

The Muggle Marauders were discussing the décor for next year – and how like them – with their partners; since they had their money, they said cheerfully, on Pru being head girl since she was probably the steadiest person in their year. They had introduced Pru to 'Lord of the Rings' during the year and the Lowther twins had invited her to come and see all the films; and they were arguing the relative merits of Khâzad Dûm or Lothlörien as a good venue, or maybe Rivendell as this was the Last Homely House on top of the mountains.

Pru laughed and said that next year was next year and not to be worried about for now, thank you!

oOoOo

There were not many couples who were actually romantically involved; Sebastian and Irmi were a couple of course; and Milos and Leneli. Elsie might have liked to have been Darryl's girlfriend but she knew that his heart belonged to Mimi Snape. Elsie was a practical girl and tried very hard not to sigh over what might have been. She was to stay on another year undertaking research, and was in fact planning on writing a book on chanting. She was extremely chuffed that Severus had, after some hesitation, invited her to stay for a few days and join in the big chant; Elsie was a girl who believed in justice and was more than happy to accept the reason for this chant. Severus explained that he only hesitated because she was still a little physically frail; and that he wanted her to chant as a secondary chanter alongside Mortimer Bane, JUST in case being a quarter goblin made a difference if he was alone; and he, a less accomplished chanter than Emily anyway, there to take over if her strength flagged.

Elsie nodded; it was practical enough. She had succeeded at the hour chant for the OWL but she knew that even four hours chanting would tax her. If she could hold the majority of it with Mortimer to take over if she flagged she felt confident of succeeding. It was a nuisance not being as strong as the others; even though several years in the Alps had done wonders for her health. It was one reason she was to stay on for the post graduate research year.

"If I had only been good enough to be chosen as part of the blood group it would have been easier" she said "You support each other, don't you?"

"Did you work all that out for yourself?" asked Severus, surprised.

"Well it seems a bit obvious" said Emily "Besides I HAVE read 'Blood magic, Love magic' you know; and the inferences are quite clear."

"Well maybe you should be blooded at that" said Severus "It's usually those who show an inclination to er, interfere who get invited in; or again, those who ask to support. And it seemed a heavy burden to lay on a child with health problems. Though I do wonder" he added "If the health problems might not be helped by the blood group as much as magical problems are."

"That's why the Muggle Marauders can do magic, isn't it?" said Elsie.

"Strictly speaking, the Lowther twins already could; their abilities were blocked by living near to an electrical sub station" said Severus. "THEY took the decision to form a small blood group with their friends, just so they could come here of right too; and such loyalty had to be rewarded. So we brought them in. Are you certain this is what you want?"

"Yes" said Elsie, simply.

"Then we'll do a blooding after the end of term" said Severus "And you can too join to some of the German group who'll be coming in."

oOoOo

And Elsie was excited; and even forgot to answer sometimes when she was dancing. Big Victor Crabbe, doing a post graduate year, laughed when he was dancing with her.

"A lot to look forward to, isn't there?" he said "And unlike the small ones, you really are considering all the implications of blooding."

"I am" said Elsie "I'm afraid it's going to make a small but perceptible separation between me and Emily; but leaving school in summer is going to do that anyway. School friends don't always stay in touch, and she's not going to be living the sort of life I'd want to live; Emily has to live fast and I prefer to live deep. We have schoolwork and the school magazine in common, but the thought has been growing on me that dearly as I love her, a year after we leave school we shall still be affectionate when we meet but we'll be virtual strangers."

"That's sad" said Victor "I suppose it's partly the blood group that I don't feel that way about Seagh and Darryl, who are my closest friends; but though I'm looking forward to seeing Ulrich Grindler when he comes visiting after teaching this last year I suppose he and I have grown apart. Are you interested in teaching? Only I fancy Seagh, Darryl, Mimi and I might be setting up another school. Perhaps with Hawke Malfoy and Lynx. You remember Lynx?"

"More or less; I came in during her last year. Pretty dark girl, all flashing eyes, something of a foil for Jade Snape" said Elsie "That lot were all really decent to us younger ones. She had a baby while she was still at school and we weren't supposed to know about it; but I usually find things out. I don't want to pass them on but I do like knowing" she added.

"Well, that's an EXCELLENT trait in a professor!" laughed Victor. He knew that Lynx and Senagra both wanted to take part in the free school but that it was actually now over staffed; and Hawke had wondered if it might be well to have only one Professor Malfoy.

Personally Victor suspected that it was more likely that the New Marauders would all stick together and any new school the Prince Peak graduates started would take on Francis Davenport and his wife Elisa; or even Neville Longbottom, leaving the school in the hands of the Malfoy Twins, to be an experienced Headmaster for a new school. There was too Fabian Ramage and his girlfriend Maud, one of Mimi's closest friends.

It would be as it would be. And nothing to happen until Mimi left school, which would allow Elsie her post graduate year.

oOoOo

And then the term was over, and most of the children going home for Christmas, excited and noisy.

And Jade and most of her staff apparated in; and Severus and Krait, Dione and Sirri got to meet her newly adopted children for the first time; and there was a hasty blooding for Elsie; and then it would begin.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Severus organised everyone into their groups; a primary chanter, a secondary chanter, an elf and an apparating aide just in case; someone competent enough to deal too with any interruptions from irritable fey or wandering muggles or overly curious wizards. Or even stray animals. Some of the places they were to be chanting might easily be in the middle of, say, Graphorn ranges. Or even dragon ranges.

"And if we have a manticore, just copy David and drop a rock on it" laughed Ellie.

"It worked" said David with all the dignity he could muster.

"It was a brilliant piece of lateral thinking" said Severus "Like Ron dropping that ruddy troll's club on its own head."

"Crumbs, Sev mate, did you actually just call me brilliant?" said Ron.

Severus grinned.

"Must have been a temporary aberration on my part" he said.

Those in the Sahara had tents with moisturising and cooling charms on them; those in the extreme north had tents with warming charms on them; and every chanter had a motorman's friend – Hermione looked relieved – and a piece of muggle kit in the form of an intravenous fluid drip with saline, just to prevent dehydration. All those who were acting as aides and the elves had been given instructions in their use; and Severus ran through it one last time. A mistake could cause a fatal embolism; so nobody made any facetious jokes about paranoia. Then they all apparated in their foursomes – or in two cases fivesomes since Harry also had Dudley Dursley along, determined to do all he could to support, and Elsie and Mortimer made up a double team as secondaries. And Mardo and George Monk from Hogwarts were along as spares since it seemed unfair not to involve Mardo as the only upper sixth chanter from Hogwarts who would otherwise not be invited, and what one brother did so did the other.

Then Severus ruffled the hair of his new grandsons Ulvik and Rainer, the two oldest of the four children Jade and Wulf had taken on; and took them with those youngsters of the blood group still left in the castle, Alrik and Fyra – their fathers were to be general helpers – Zhenga, whose father was a secondary chanter, the Breuer marauders and Johanna Schiff, whose sister had volunteered as a supporter. There were also his own younger children and Jade's three infants. It was a good job that blooding imparted an instinctive knowledge of elf style apportation; he would never be able to side-along so many with only Sirri to help. Randolph was part of the central group too; he was no chanter but he was handy to have around in case of a scrap and he would too orient his painted cloths for the best effect.

Clovis Gierek and his little elven wife Tildi would be with them too; and her son Vissy; and some of the castle elves just there to help care for babies.

And then they were arriving smoothly in Durmstrang castle, greeted by Agata Bacsó; and the Durmstrang contingent of chanters directed to their stations.

The various junior layers of marauders went off to get to know each other, including the Durmstrang contingent, which was three boys and a girl; and Severus helped Randolph lay out the patterns.

"You aren't actually needed immediately so you may as well relax as much as possible" said Severus in his harsh voice to the Giereks; they would rest first and no reason they should not have such of the night as there was together. Clovis was not required, after all, before midday.

It was late at night; the chanters should sleep a few hours, and the responsibility of the helpers to wake each starting chanter in good time, and see that they were given breakfast; and insert the drip. They all already had the needle taped in place; all that was necessary was connecting the bag of fluid.

Severus was a poor sleeper at the best of times; so he read instead until he dozed off; relaxing with the gentle humour of 'Gurdap in the ministry' a satire in which a troll is cursed into human form and finds himself working in the ministry, and how frustrated he is by how stupid most of the staff there seem to be.

And then Torik was waking him with breakfast – and they did breakfast well here at Durmstrang, thought Severus, tucking into mixed grill – and then he would have time to relieve himself and then start.

He had a clock checked to the second; and he watched it, counting down; and then pulsed the starting chanters, synchronised heartbeat to get the timing, and began the Gaelic chant,

"A casadh orainn do'n chead uair, d'fhiaf-raigh me di a-n scaioi-l- feadh glas ar bith gra….."*

"Turning on the first hour I seek for a spell to unlock the spell laid in the heart…."

And after every repetition he beat the complex ruffle on that powerful Bodhran; and he felt its magic thrill though his bones, and saw any elf in the hall shiver as it reached into them too. It was a relief to be able to alternate chant and beat; either one would have been nearly impossible to keep up for the whole twelve hours. But this he could do; and small people fed him power as he flagged to keep him going.

It was as though he had chanted and drummed forever; there was nothing in life but chanting and drumming, drumming and chanting; and yet he must too keep half an eye on the time, ready for the sacrifice.

Slowly passed the hours; more slowly yet, no doubt, for Clovis and Tildi. And now they had come into the hall, ready to take their place in the circle, ready for Tildi to begin the sacrifice. Several small people had crept in too, as supporters, bless them; and now Severus was watching the clock in earnest. And as he made chant held up three, two, one fingers for Tildi; and he felt Clovis' pain as she cut into him with the severing spell, readying the silver knife to pierce his heart; and the pain was being reduced by others, brought down.

Severus changed the beat on the bodhran; it had not been planned but he KNEW it was right to beat the tune of a heartbeat; Lub-DUP, lub DUP, Lub-DUP as he synchronised his own heart to it and felt the shock of two hundred hearts synchronising with him. Twelve times he beat that heart beat; once for every spurting drop of blood. And then he was picking up the chant again, and Tildi and Sirri were healing Clovis; and Sirri was away to distribute the blood a drop at a time drawing the freeing rune on the heads of those at the twelve cardinal points.

And the chanting and the drumming alternated; and again Severus was in that strange limbo where there was no other activity, where his body did not belong to him, where only chanting and drumming existed and he was somehow simultaneously distant from that and separated from it; and yet intimately a part of it with no sense of self but the ritual. His legs did not belong to him; his fingers that held the beater did not belong to him. He was the chant and there was no other being.

And then finally, after an incalculable time, Sirri was signalling to him that the time was drawing on; ten minutes no more. And Severus drew strength from that, summoned his last reserves; and was able to draw the ritual to a close with a triumphant lift of the voice, a defiant ruffle of the drum. And he was blood pulsing the rest and sinking to weary knees on a body that finally belonged to him again and was bone tired; and Sirri kissed him fiercely, took the needle out of his arm, and handed him a good mug of throat soothing potion tasting of honey and lemon and cardamom.

oOoOo

Then everyone was apparating in, in a greater or lesser state of exhaustion; Elsie looking relatively fresh, but then she had been a starting chanter on the Shetland Isles and could have slept any time in the last eight hours; and probably did. Lilith was dropping, and Severus swept her up to kiss her and praise her.

"She is SUCH a little trooper!" said Crys Bass in admiration, Lilith's chosen secondary.

And Agata's school elves had laid on a sumptuous feast; which was very welcome. Less welcome was the insistence by all the elves on kissing the feet of anyone they could, especially Clovis; and Lucius warned Clovis that he'd be knee deep in free fey and elves before long.

"We have a fey exclusion line" said Clovis "Damn, I'd better find a way to let them know to go to you or something."

"Oh NO my boy!" laughed Lucius "I already had that little problem; we'll twist your exclusion line to cover only fey with hostile or unfriendly intent."

"And I love you too Lucius" said Clovis.

The youngsters who had been feeding power seemed to recover for a good meal, and Severus was glad; Lilith fell asleep at the table. And then they were all dropping onto mattresses the elves brought to sleep without any thought of whether it was proper to be mixed men and women; nobody would have had the energy for anything bar sleeping in any case. And a good night's sleep made all the difference; and they rose to be fed again by the Durmstrang elves before going their various ways. It was done; and they had not had any trouble from the fey, thanks, no doubt, to Jade's fey exclusion line; but Severus was much relieved that none of the chanters had seemed to experience any trouble either.

There would be howls of anguish across Europe as suddenly elves became less servile, able to think what thoughts they might about their masters. They were still bound to slavery; but at least they were not bound to slavery of the soul, and nor would their offspring, nor their generations ever be so bound again.

It had been well done.

oOoOo

Von Frettchen blew in on Christmas Eve.

"Are you supposed to involve small people of eleven in blood magic?" he asked mildly.

"I only ever involve volunteers" said Severus "If they would be marauders as Harry Potter was, why, he had no choice but to be involved. None of the other supporters are any the worse; did Wilhelm or Serrik have any problems?" he asked sharply.

"Oh no; none at all, though we were a bit concerned when both lads were listless all day" said Von Frettchen. "Then all the elves got very quiet, and turned and looked at them; and they grinned and told me they'd just been involved in this ritual of yours. If some people find out they'll never forgive you."

Severus shrugged.

"Such people aren't actually likely to be on my Christmas card list anyway" he said "I've lived with far more uncomfortable enemies than a few fat grafs and grafins, and self opinionated land owners. And I must say, the thought of the discomfort of such types fills me with joy; you Germans have a word for it – schardenfreude."

Von Frettchen laughed.

"For mine, that I have said to them that I support this move it has but increased their loyalty; so I have no problem at all. I had ever ordered my elves not to self punish in any case; the direct order supersedes the urge, mostly. It is an abrogation of responsibility to leave your servants to punish themselves in any case. I beg you though, do not try to free them; few even of my elves are ready for freedom."

"Yes, I know" said Severus "I lived through the teenage years of one of Harry's friends – she teaches with me now – trying to leave hats around for elves to find, and the offended silences and bad cooking rebounded on everyone. It took my second lady Sirri to explain matters to her before Hermione finally stopped trying to forcibly free elves, and instead turned her attentions to teaching those that would listen how to want to be free, and supporting those freed as punishment of through line death. She took the lesson; especially after, as Head Girl at Hogwarts, she met a child with equally thick skinned determination to do good for people whether they wanted it or not. Why not free and livery all those of your elves as wish it? They can be paid a relatively token amount – they worry about what to do with money – and flaunt their livery at visiting elves and nobility. And if you free all juveniles and send them to school here or with Jade, with jobs promised when they leave if they do not want to go out into the world, you will take the business of civilising the wizarding world a step further on; since slavery is barbaric."

Von Frettchen nodded.

"I never questioned it; I accepted that elves were slaves and one had a duty of care towards them" he said. "I did not know about a ritual to embed a version of the Imperious Curse until the boys told me."

"I dare say Jade felt she had too much on her plate getting some fairness for goblins in Germany without tackling an essentially impossible task of freeing all the slaves" said Severus. "Especially as you already treat your elves well. Are you staying to eat with us?"

"No, I'd like to get back; just wanted to check out that you knew those two imps were involved."

"We couldn't afford NOT to involve them" said Severus. "When we did it for England it dropped us in our tracks for several days; and with the possibility of fey retribution I did not feel we could afford that. Oh your charges will not be at risk; they'd not pick out their patterns as mere power sources. It's me and the Sacrifice, Clovis Gierek they'll go after and HE'S in a fey exclusion line at Durmstrang. Interesting times, old boy; interesting times."

"Do you practise being as offensive as Lucius Malfoy or does it come naturally?" laughed von Frettchen.

"It comes quite naturally" said Severus, smiling austerely.

oOoOo

It was fun to have a family Christmas and see the joy on the faces of the two new members of the family old enough to appreciate it; they had made a quick last minute dash to get nice things for the children, and Jade had twisted Lucius' arm to find a flying pony, a steppe pony crossed with the non flying Przewalski horse for Rainer, who had taken to riding. Ulvik had a broom for his main present; and they had got such amusements as Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had on offer. Ulvik had worked hard to make gifts for his new parents; and had discovered an ability to use the colour changing charm through stencils to make a mock peacock feather on a goose feather quill, that Jade and Wulf rightly praised for its ingenuity.

And it was nice for the boy to have cousins – even if Sevvy teased Ulvik that he should call him 'uncle'- who were of an age with him.

It was a jolly Christmas and the games and family fun so obviously new to both little boys; and the babes between two and three years old just laughed for joy because everyone else was happy, and played with their toys. Ralph was very clearly the one who considered himself in charge, though the goblin child Roderick, known as Rory, was older; and Lily a contented child happy to receive cuddles. And Severus took the child to see James and Lily in their portrait.

"Jade adopted this child; who was known only by a number. She's called her Lily Grace for family reasons" he said "I expect the dark red hair was in her mind too; not so bright a shade as yours, Lily; that's more mirrored in an imp called Zhenga in the first."

"Part goblin?" James peered. "She'll have some troubles in Germany."

"But less for being Lily Grace VON Luytens" said Severus dryly. "The fully goblin boys might have more trouble; but I only had one set of arms and I wanted to show you small Lily."

"Thanks, Scales mate" said James.

"I wish her every happiness" said Lily. "I'm sure Ralph will be a protective brother to her."

"Oh he will; and to small Rory, scarcely any older" said Severus. "Another layer of marauders just in themselves almost! Rory's the same age as my Merope, and the other two the same age as David Fraser's Lucy and just a year older then than Vissy Gierek. Not that being blooded always follows that they WILL be marauders; Sevvy, Tarquin and their lot have decided to support without marauding."

"Well it takes support to do the big things I guess" said James "I never reckoned, when we started the Marauders that it would become something so big, so far reaching; and so able to do good. I guess you've taken the spirit of marauding further than we would ever have dreamed of, Scales; because without your vision, I reckon even Sirius wouldn't have gone so far."

Severus flushed.

"It wasn't me; it was the fact of marauding" he said softly "It just grew naturally out of love; the greatest magic in the world. Even if it DID take me a while to believe Albus on that one!"

oOoOo

Jade and Wulf had returned to Schloss Adler when the fey turned up. Seagh, Krait and Severus had chanted up a warning line and a barrier in fey space which limited their options and also excluded any not invited; and the line of copper poles just within that line were there for a purpose too.

There was the usual jeering, hooting, name calling.

"You Snape-creature, you have stolen our slaves!" screeched on high fey with cow's hooves and a long tail.

"We will punish you for taking our prey!" howled a demon.

"Och sich a muckle load o' havers frae the crabbit wee sumpfs" remarked Seagh.

Severus had begun a chant; and clouds roiled overhead.

"Am I the only one to think of Saruman on Orthanc when the Fellowship battled Caradhras?" murmured Victor.

"No; and a sight more appropriate than just excluding the wee de'ils by doing Gandalf with a 'you shall not pass!' thing" said Seagh. "The ones as would protest are not the ones we really want to invite for tea and cucumber sandwiches the noo are they?"

"I wonder what Kappa would make of cucumber in sandwiches" murmured Victor irrelevantly.

"We will find a way to reach you and destroy you; you cannot hide behind your line of protection forever!" called a creature of flame and shadow.

"Now THAT's a balrog" said Victor.

"Near enough; it's an efreet" said Seagh. "Tolkein drew on folklore; folklore includes the forms the fey have either made for themselves or have been forced into by demonologists who have their own ideas. Excuse" he shouted something of his own in the language that was not quite Gaelic and not quite Celtic that the fey used. There was a roar of anger. "While they're in a naughty temper over my description of their descent they'll not be thinking so straight" he added to Victor "Are you ready to pick up the chant from him?"

Victor nodded; and the rest of the chanters in the school smoothly picked up the repetitions of the complex chant Severus had been making, feeling the weight of the thunderstorm on their shoulders; and Victor gasping anew at the sheer mental strength of his guardian.

Severus grinned evilly.

"If you want to cross the line – do so; if you want me come and get me!"

They did of course.

And Severus picked up the counterpoint, took back the weight of the storm; and released it.

And lightening raged, leaping from the copper lightening conductors in long jagged scars of light up to the clouds; and the fey screamed a long thin scream that might almost have come from a single throat as they were disrupted; and destroyed.

"Doesn't it break the rules of hospitality that you invited them in? And won't that cause trouble in the future?" asked Dione.

Severus shook his head.

"No; it was an invitation and challenge. They were invited in to fight me. They lost" he said. "Seagh and I discussed it long; and to make invitation to challenge is covered by different rules. I fancy we shouldn't have any more trouble; that constituted the greater part of the most unpleasant fey in Europe I'd be bound to guess. How many were there, Seagh?"

"Including the lesser forms? Around six hundred" shrugged Seagh "Enough to be a trouble forbye if not well fried. If any escaped they'll no' be comin' back here nae mair."

"That was the general idea" said Severus. "Ah well; how to make enemies and influence people."

"You may not have noticed, my dear" said Krait "But most people like to make friends and influence people."

Severus grinned wolfishly.

"I always like to be different" he said.

oOoOo

"You lead an exciting life up here" said Herr Müller, whose daughter had come from Schloss Adler to spend Christmas on the Horn with her family.

"It's not always quite that exciting" said Victor "We had a touch of trouble with the fey last year but nothing serious. Severus doesn't go out of his way to avoid making enemies if the people he's making enemies of are not so nice. It keeps us on our toes. Don't worry; when you're teaching with Jade I have no doubt she'll manage to make enough enemies to make life less dull than it is without them."

"This chanting is fantastique, when eet ees done by ze master" said Arsène le Fèvre who had not bothered to go home for Christmas, hearing rumours of a big chant. He had missed the big chant and assumed this was it. He was learning chanting; that with his iron will would make him a useful ally another time, as Hermione had said, when for example they tackled Asia.

Severus had just cuffed her for that.

Hermione was not there to, as Severus put it rudely, keep Arsène on a short leash, because the Weasleys had gone off for their own outsize family Christmas; so Victor grinned at him.

"Only a Jedi Master is capable of such things" he said unanswerably.

"Might I say" said Herr Müller mildly "That I was not necessarily looking on excitement as a POSITIVE thing."

"It is though" said Victor "It's awfully easy to get stale and in a rut without the odd bit of excitement; and to start taking things for granted. Complacence leads to a lack of being able to cope when there IS a crisis; like when Voldemort was a little bit dead for ten years and the ministry promptly jumped back into their comfortable rut, cast the la-la-la I'm not listening spell on their ears and pretended not to need to respond because he'd been quiescent long enough that they'd forgotten how to. Though by all accounts they weren't that good at it first time. A low level of excitement means good preparation."

"Perhaps" said Müller cautiously "But for a schoolmaster?"

"I suppose I take that as natural" shrugged Victor "In the Voldemort years, the only people who actually did a lot that was positive to oppose him were sundry schoolchildren, Harry Potter among them, and some of their teachers. And here in Austria it seemed that Prince Peak was the only force that opposed Gerhardt Grindelwald and Odessa. It too sorts out amongst those children old enough to be permitted to help out which are those who will volunteer, the future Aurors – Vehmgerichten you call them – from those who need to be protected. Those of us who have fought naturally turn our thoughts to teaching because we know we shall be able to protect our children; Gerhardt attacked schools in order to have young minds to mould and brainwash and turn to his ends. Not all need fight; so long as some are prepared to. Jade will not expect you to stand forward, Herr Müller, if it is not in your nature so to do, she has plenty of staff who can and will. And yes she DOES expect excitement; from those who hold it abhorrent to teach goblins and mudbloods – you count in their eyes as a mudblood – and she WILL protect her pupils from such blood snobs and racist scum. And she will need gentler people too to lead the children to the safest parts of the castle and keep them calm while the martial fight. We have dared to challenge convention and stand against blood snobbery; and you and your children to be the gainers from that. But if one stands up for an ideal it's pretty poor to say 'yes I believe in education for all these children, but if you turn up in force I will meekly hand them over for you to rape the pretty older girls to death and flog the rest to death as a punishment for their insolence' isn't it?"

Müller paled.

"Surely they would not do that?"

"Herr Müller, you have not associated with Odessa types as I have; yes they would. As a lesson lest any other impurities and animals – as they describe those of less than the required purity of blood and goblins – get the idea that they are as good as these racists. They are weaklings, I grant you, to be so insecure that they need to do this; and it proves that deep down they KNOW that even the muggleborn and goblins too CAN perform as well as they, and that scares them; because then, wherein lies the advantage of pure blood? What is its advantage? But it is weaklings who bully, Herr Müller. I've been there; I've bullied to try to give myself an advantage in my feelings of weakness. I got over it – thanks in great part to Professor Severus Snape who would rather cure such mental sickness than kill. You have chosen the path of education for yourself and your daughter and later son. Do not be surprised to meet nasty comments at best and attempts to humiliate or even kill your family at worst. If you want to pull out and stop your extra education, I imagine that Severus can arrange you an apartment back in your home town and a job somewhere in the wizarding world and you may withdraw your daughter from school."

"I did not realise the realities" said Herr Müller. "No I will NOT back out; I WILL fight for my right to education and my children's rights to a full place in the wizarding world. I do not know that I can fight physically; but I can stand up for what is right. Such people are abominations; and I will oppose them with all my strength."

"Good for you sir" said Victor, clapping him on the shoulder.

oOoOo

"It was well done" said Severus quietly to Victor later "I fear the truth was a shock but better told him now than that he find out the hard way. Jade is moving the parents of the muggleborn friend of his daughter to teach muggle studies too to protect them; after all, one cannot trust Germans to take any account of laws against mugglebaiting."

"Or muggle murder" said Victor. "Especially if the victims are poor and the muggle authorities not so likely to make a fuss."

oOoOo

Horst Müller was enjoying his studies. He found Heather a stimulating and good teacher and had no problem about joining in with the only upper sixth taking Geomancy to NEWT, which was to say Sebastian. Sebastian was a serious student and in no wise like to make game of an older man in his class once Heather had brought Horst on to the required level. His studies during the holidays had given him an idea of what he was lacking; Severus had set him to read through all the geomancy text books and make note of what he had covered and what he had not; and to read all he had covered to check he had covered it thoroughly and in all parts. And Horst had found himself sadly lacking in many basics yet advanced in other fields; and had determinedly worked through all the exercises in the early books to check he had brought himself up at least to a level just below OWL. Heather had gone through the rest of the OWL work over the first half of the term with Horst also working on doggedly; and then he fitted in to do the lesson with Sebastian, which also gave the boy someone else to discuss the work with, and did two extra hours a week with Heather to cover the work Sebastian had done the year before. He also worked with Hermione to improve his Arithmancy; not so much for the exam but just to cover enough to use in advanced Geomancy. Being a hard worker, Hermione said that if he carried on as well as he had, he may as well sit the NEWT, since though he might not get a grade that reflected the work he had put in, a NEWT was a NEWT and two were better than one.

And Valerie, who loathed Arithmancy and found it impossible to fathom, admired her papa very much indeed!

oOoOo

Arsène's main field of study was chanting; and he too was progressing well. And Severus could not say why it was that he left him out of the twelve hour chant; but though Arsène might oppose dark wizards something told him that he might have blind spots about evils that were traditional like elf slavery. He might be doing him an injustice; but if not, then Arsène had the capacity to disrupt the whole thing.

"I like him well enough but I always trust your feelings, Domine" Hermione had said. Severus could be suspicious and prickly; but he had learned enough body language outside of legilimensy that his feelings were usually more than some kind of intuition. And the only time he had been totally wrong had been about Harry; which, with the emotional baggage surrounding James, had been hardly surprising.

Arsène however was benefiting from the lessons and was considering retiring from his career as a duellist while he was still at its pinnacle to teach chanting at Beauxbatons; and nobody mentioned that a year's study, however intensive, would never cover all the complexities needed to teach well.

As Krait said rudely, which of the French was likely to notice anyway – saving, perhaps, for Solange's father.

Healer Lebaton, Solange's father, came when he could for chanting lessons and read all he might on the subject – which was the two books Severus had written and a few obscure tomes. He asked if he might send full time a goblin nurse next year, with whom he was consolidating his learning and who seemed to pick it up well; and Severus was more than happy to agree, and too to give the said nurse more formal training in medical transfiguration. Healer Lebaton was delighted.

Severus only wished that the same attitude might be found in St Mungo's; where the chants that has been performed by him or those he had taught were viewed with wonder by the nurses and deep suspicion by many of the healers – Healer Visick being an exception – and no approach had been made to him to teach chanting to any of the healers there. Severus was strongly considering asking Healer Visick to head an institute associated with the school – giving the reason that delicate children were given priority in the school – to further train and issue qualifications to the likes of Angelica and to Taryn Rebet and to be an official base for roving healers so there was a good well established organisation behind them. And he reflected with grim humour that perhaps they should call such a base St Bernard's, as a nod to the monks and their dogs who saved lives in the Alps; and because they would dog the footsteps of the terminally conservative. The dogs of Prince Peak to match the wolves of Prince Peak.

oOoOo

The two adults there for the music were also getting a lot out of it; Anselm Amsel was overjoyed to learn how to use tunes of enchantment; and Terence Goodchild was amazed to find out how many bad habits he had and to have Godfrey correct them without crowing. After all, as Terence said, he had to believe that Godfrey knew what he was talking about as he was the one who made money out of his music and he Terence did not – at least, not a great deal. It had already made a considerable difference to Terence's ability to perform, and though Godfrey was more talented, the difference between them was not quite so painful. And Terence really enjoyed playing as accompanist to his younger brother and forging deep ties of love and friendship. And he too was taking up chanting, since Godfrey rated it; and when Victor spoke of starting another school asked if he worked hard whether he might then teach music and at least starting chanting.

And Victor spoke to Severus and asked if he would subsidise Terence in an extra year to that end; which Severus agreed to do, and Terence was thrilled!

The adult students at least were looking forward to the start of a new term!

* or phonetically, 'Cassoo doran don ced waar, jeefri may dee on sceeloo bi gloss air bi graw


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The holidays were still to have some excitement to offer.

The feeling of pain and fear and sluggishness on the part of Wilhelm and Serrik washed over their own immediate friends first, and the other Prince Peak Marauders subsequently.

And then various people were apparating to the little boys; including those who were considered far too young by most standards.

And into the dining room of Herzog Von Frettchen's schloss, an anti-apparating zone, arrived Zhenga, Fyra, Alrik, Bruno – who being a time zone ahead had finished his New Year's dinner and thus would NOT have so much explaining to do to his parents – the Bee Marauders, the First Peak Marauders, the Muggle Marauders and sundry Prince Peak staff, including of course Severus.

The potioneer took in the situation in an instant, seeing the duke and duchess, their twin sons, in their highchairs, Herzogin Ann's parents as well as her brother Wilhelm and his friend gasping for breath, and the baby boys almost at death's door. Sick too were Eduard Von Frettchen's brother and sister in law; and his nephew sat unharmed, smiling gently and with malicious enjoyment of the discomfort of the others even his parents; watching with what could only be described as pleasure as his infant cousins were dying before his gaze.

Severus started chanting, casting the severing spell wordlessly and wandlessly on his palm and on that of each of the babes, dripping blood and strength into them. Chanting would take too long; if he had thought to bring a bezoar…. The other Ubiquitous Marauders were busy dissipating the effects of the poison in their fellows almost absently as they got out wands to point – as did other marauders – at the only person not poisoned. Ignaz had not yet reacted fully; the shock of people arriving in droves into an anti-apparating zone had frozen him in shock. He began to rise, reaching for his father's wand, his own having been broken.

"Muggle Marauders seize that smiling git, Zhenga get a cauldron" Severus broke off chanting long enough to say. "The rest of you a neutralising chant."

The Muggle Marauders leaped on the staring figure of Ignaz Frettchen; who had recovered enough wit to shout for the elves, something about intruders; and then, with his father's wand in his hand he tried to throw the killing curse.

Brief Zig-zag scars appeared, were dissipated and faded; and he was quickly disarmed, wrapped in bonds of what Randolph described as appropriately Lord Randallish for a poisoner – all streakèd and stripèd in yellow and green – vomiting slugs, producing bats which, being a synthesis of the bat bogey hex from Rory and the boogie-woogie-bogey bugle hex from Fred were intoning solemnly the Horst Vessel song in swing time; and he was also squirming from being tickled.

He was NOT going anywhere. Fred, Peter and Rory joined in the chanting, leaving Randolph, who did not chant, to watch him just in case.

Wilhelm and Serrik were cleared of the poison by their blood-bond; the rest stabilising; and Krait invaded the kitchen and demanded ingredients from the elves there, who stared.

Krait called for Gretti, Eduard's old nurse and gave her a concise run down of what was happening.

Gretti started bullying elves; and Krait left her to bring up all that was needed.

The chant would keep the victims alive until the antidote had been brewed. Ignaz had been creative with his potions and an application of Golapott's third law was needed; and the antidote would have to be one too that would purge them thoroughly that would probably have killed Leopold and Leonhard at their age.

The antidote would do for Von Frettchen's brother and sister-in-law and Ann's parents; to preserve the well-being of an important ally was imperative.

"Slice and dice" said Severus facetiously, taking Ann's and Eduard's hands.

"Severus what ARE you like?" scolded Hermione, obediently slashing her own palm.

"In a hurry" said Severus.

The blooding was hurried, but thorough; and a single heartbeat sounded throughout the room as the poison was cleared from the two adults as well as their infants.

"Donner und Blitzen, Severus!" cried Eduard "That is POWERFUL!"

Severus gave a wintry smile.

"Love usually is" he said "You are a friend now; I would be loath to lose you for that reason as well as political ones. Your kin must make do with antidote, yes, Zhenga dear, that's exactly right" he added as Zhenga ran up with a cauldron.

Krait was preparing ingredients; and the Bee Marauders were chanting over the other Von Frettchens and the Scmitts.

Randolph was amusing himself by renewing curses as things like the slug vomiting curse wore off; as this youth was a real enemy he could, he thought, afford to get creative. Ignaz now sported cauliflowers for ears and was growing nettles out of mouth and nose with attendant red admiral butterflies because they were pretty. Randolph was like that sometimes.

"Are we then of this blood group that the boys told us aided the freeing of the elves from compulsion?" gasped Ann "It feels so….. so CLOSE!"

"You are indeed" said Severus "And able to call on us in need. Let me concentrate on this antidote; your nephew is a cunning potioneer. I doubt many could gauge an antidote successfully to the subtleties he has added. I'm surprised to see him at your table."

"It's my idiot sister-in-law's fault" said Eduard giving the unfortunate woman a filthy look "She convinced me that he was contrite and wanted to meet with me formally to apologise. Which was to happen after we ate together to get a more relaxed atmosphere."

"THIS time I take it you will institute proceedings?" said Severus grimly "Jade told me how he tried to poison Ann with a potion that would prevent any child quickening within her that might also have been fatal to her for bringing forth an excess of blood; and that you went with the merciful view of having him expelled and but disowned."

"Yes; I flogged the little tyke too" said Eduard "Which he had not have needed had his parents used the flat of their hands occasionally when he was younger. I still feel weak; is that the residue of the poison?"

"No; it's the residue of the blooding" said Severus. "Ah, Jade" as Jade turned up with Ulvik in tow.

"Need me?" asked Jade.

"No; but I expect Eduard and Ann are glad of the moral support" said Severus.

Jade snorted and picked up the babies as Ulvik went to those of the Ubiquitous marauders he knew and got to meet Wilhelm and Serrik.

"This could have been in more auspicious circumstances" grinned Wilhelm.

"Well at least we know each other now" said Ulvik, helping with the blood clearing. Jade was shushing the not unnaturally fretful twins.

"Want me to take them for a day or so?" she asked. "You will be implementing my suggestion Eduard, I take it?"

"I will" said Eduard grimly "Do you want Jade to take the babies, Ann?"

"No, it's all right; Gretti will help me with them" said Ann. Jade nodded, kissed her, shook hands with Eduard, held out a hand for Ulvik, who came obediently; and dissapparated. She had her own school to get in order.

oOoOo

Severus was the acknowledged best potioneer in the world; and he soon had a dose to force between the lips of the improved, but still groaning patients.

"I thought Jade reckoned anything could be solved with a chant?" said Eduard.

"It can" said Severus "But I'm not prepared to put the time and effort in to them that might be needed to deal with your nephew. I understand Jade suggested returning him to childhood?"

"Yes" said Eduard. "Actually she suggested the idea of offering him the choice of that or being handed over to the Vehmgerichten; on the principle that he would not realise that she meant removing his memories too."

Severus nodded.

"Ready to talk to him then when the antidote finishes purging people?" he said.

"When the elves have cleared up; this room stinks. You'll scarcely want to chant in such a situation? You were offering to do so, weren't you?"

"I was and I shall; and a cleaner spot of air would be welcome" said Severus.

oOoOo

Randolph had, on request, removed the facial adornments and threatened Ignaz as he started trying to pronounce spells that he could think of more creative places to put nettles that would leave him unable to say anything that was not a thin falsetto scream. Ignaz shut up.

"Ignaz" said Eduard. "You underestimate my allies."

"You underestimate the power of the Force" muttered Randolph. Someone had to say it.

Ignaz scowled.

"I don't understand how you can be up and talking!" he said sullenly "The poison had no antidote!"

"There is NO poison that has no antidote" said Severus "I AM the master; you are only the learner" he added quickly before anyone else did.

"And we DID survive; and you are a proven poisoner" said Eduard coldly. "I give you two choices; the Vehmgerichten and a term in Nurmengard so long you'll be tripping over your beard before you get out; or to be returned to childhood and to grow up in MY household, as my brother and his wife can't be trusted to rear you properly, alongside MY sons."

A cunning look crept into Ignaz eyes; and Severus hid a malicious smile. The boy was planning to use his position in his uncle's household to kill when he was old enough to have the physical prowess. The idea that he would no longer have his current thoughts had not entered his head.

"I don't want to go to Nurmengard, please, Uncle Eduard" he said, trying to sound very young "I – I suppose my upbringing must have been wrong to wish harm on you; please let me try again!"

"Very well; it is witnessed that this is your choice" said Eduard. "Severus?" Severus nodded; cancelled the bonds, and smiled unpleasantly as the boy made a bid to rise and found he could not.

"More than one way to do it, you know" said Severus softly; then he began chanting.

Ignaz's body began imperceptibly to shrink; and it was at this juncture that he realised perhaps that his memories were also being gently stripped; and suddenly he screamed in terror.

"My BABY!" cried Frau Von Frettchen starting to run to him. Eduard grabbed her and shook her roughly.

"He CHOSE this over a term in Nurmengard; great powers, woman, after he tried to kill you too you STILL want to cosset the evil little bastard?" he said roughly.

"Oh do not hurt him! If you hurt him I will never forgive you, never!" sobbed the woman.

"And I am supposed to forgive YOU for letting him near enough MY babies that he could attempt to kill them? You mistake the place of whose right it is to forgive you silly creature!" said Eduard. "Randolph, restrain your wife."

Randolph Wright started then realised he shared a name with the younger Von Frettchen brother.

"What ARE you having done to the boy Eduard?" asked Randolph Von Frettchen.

"I'm having him returned to babyhood to grow up in MY house with my sons" said Von Frettchen "In the belief that I and my wife can make a better job of it than you have. He'll be of an age with the four bastards he got on three muggle girls who I will also be bringing into my household, the mothers as nursery maids and your grandchildren in my nursery. They will go to Prince Peak or the subsidised school depending on their talent. And like Ignaz they WILL be told the truth – when they are old enough to accept it. Severus appears to have arranged that all very nicely; he makes a pleasing infant" he added as Severus finished his chant and picked up the chubby blonde bundle of baby boy.

"I made him the precise same age as your twins, Eduard" said Severus "It had symmetry."

"I thank you" said Eduard gravely. "My brother and his wife were just leaving so that my parents in law, my wife and I might have a comfortable atmosphere in which to recover from this traumatic experience."

His sister in law opened her mouth to complain that it had been traumatic for her too; and wisely shut it again.

And the Prince Peak contingent were returning to their own castle or in the case of the pupils who had come to their own homes ready to come to the castle on the morrow.

"Always something new out of Germany" misquoted Severus to himself.

**oOoOo**

"Y' know what, dad?" said Darryl

"Not unless you tell me son" said Severus, trying not to look soppily pleased that Darryl had decided to call him 'Dad', accepting fully that he was going to marry Mimi.

"I was just thinking" said Darryl "That it was a bloody good job that chant was so tough; because there was so much emotion in it I might have misbehaved with Mimi had not I been too knackered."

"I'm glad you didn't lad; but if you had I'm sure we would have weathered it" said Severus. "I'd rather she didn't fall pregnant before at least Yule next year so she doesn't birth until after the end of her final exams; but if it happens, well we've been through THAT before as a family. And if the pair of you use potions in the meantime and are careful, well you're both adults and I have no right to dictate to the pair of you; only make suggestions."

Darryl looked pleased.

"THANK you dad" he said "For –well, I guess saying you'll stand by us no matter what; I think I'm old fashioned and want to wait until we're properly married; I know my mother was much married but she had boyfriends as well, between husbands and….. well I want OUR marriage to be special. Is that foolish?"

"Not in the least" Severus dropped an arm about his shoulders. "Krait and I jumped the wand rather because of the circumstances; not knowing if we'd live long enough for her to leave school. But if the pair of you want to get married next Yule there's no reason why you should not; it's to think on, hmmm?"

"Yes; we'll discuss it" said Darryl. "Thanks."

They were waiting for the return of the children for the new term in that calm before the maelstrom of children; and it was one of those deeply profound conversations that suddenly spring up from nowhere. And Severus was glad that it had; Darryl had been so deeply hurt by his mother that wanting to be part of a proper family and being able to discuss it meant that he had put it behind him and moved on. And Severus was pleased for him that he could look forward.

It had been a Yule for being a surrogate father; Walter Crabbe had needed his brother Victor as a witness in his claim for sanctuary, since his parents had lodged an appeal on grounds that Walter had been brainwashed by Professor Dumbledore or Professor Fraser and that it was ridiculous that their baby should wish to be a ward of the school. Walter had conducted his own case – really rather well – and had pointed out that his parents had failed him from the first when they had not noticed that he was cursed. Severus gave evidence that it had been he who had first suggested the means of the curse; and that he had felt the Crabbes to be less than co-operative with the healers. Victor had put forward his own story that his unacceptable behaviour, leading to expulsion from Hogwarts, had been caused by a child's and then youth's reaction to his brother's cursed behaviour and the failure of their parents to accept that he was a little monster; and that he had learned about real parenting from Professor and Madam Snape who had given him a second chance; and had added that it took more to be parents than the ability to procreate like his biological parents. His parents had cast curses at him, but Victor's shield charm was impervious; and as his father used the cruciatus curse he ended up in Azkaban for ten years, not merely the six months he had already earned himself for contempt; and his mother was to go away for nine months too. Walter was deeply relieved; that was nine months he did NOT have to worry about repercussions!

"And I half wish I HAD said what I was thinking too" said Victor to Severus later "Which was that it takes a real man to be a dad, not just a leaky little prick."

"As well you did not" said Severus dryly, grinning "You'd have put yourself more in the wrong and would have earned yourself a reprimand even if Tiberius DID laugh about it later. I'll pass it on to him unofficially later though if I may – if it's not an immodest thing to pass on what is also essentially a compliment to me as well as an insult to your father."

"Do if it'll give him a laugh" said Victor cheerfully. He was happy; his brother was free!

oOoOo

Severus was too reflecting on the actions of two more of his relatively recent admirers; the Broomstick Boys. Crys Bass and Nils Tenor had done well in the chant and had declared their year of post graduate study worth it if they only ever used it for that; and had mooted an idea of how they might extend the region affected by the freeing chant.

The new and improved sound they had managed in their musical endeavours for having now a better grounding and more voice control was starting to win the pair a following in America; and Nils had come up with the idea of releasing an album which had on it a track featuring the words of the chant; the chant itself as a background and lyrics over it encompassing its meaning, so that every time it was played perhaps it might reduce the compulsion; especially if it was a hit and was played all over the States. Silvina had helped them with the composition too, entwining magic into it; and whilst Severus was dubious that it would work, it just might; or at least make a subsequent chant there easier. Four time zones yet again were a lot to consider. And if it took off in America it would probably reach a world wide audience too. It could not hurt! Especially as Seagh had played the proper rhythm on the special bodhran as an accompaniment; and the Broomstick Boys had picked a tune form based on Irish folk song that had become one of the ancestors of Country and Western music, such as should appeal to the American ear. Severus thought wryly 'they like both kinds of music here; country AND western' and reflected that at least Crys and Nils were better than the Blues Brothers.

He found he was humming the song; and why not? The more it was sung the more it would set up the ritual.

_**Turning from the first pale light**_

_**Turning hours until the dark night**_

_**Seeking for a way, a means I may start**_

_**To unlock the spell laid on my heart**_

_Time is turning, a long time turning_

_Freedom for my thoughts in my heart I'm yearning_

_Freedom to think the thoughts that are burning_

_Let my heart be free!_

_**Turn my thoughts unto tomorrow**_

_**Hope of freedom from the sorrow**_

_**Is there a way that joyfulness starts**_

_**To unlock the spell laid on my heart?**_

_Time is turning, a long time turning_

_Freedom for my thoughts in my heart I'm yearning_

_Freedom to think the thoughts that are burning_

_Let my heart be free!_

_**Cassoo doran don ced waar, ced waar**_ [a casadh orainn d'on chéad uoir, chéad uoir]

_**Slan lesh an eechay, shale go hayrah**_ [slan leis an oiche, seal go haerach]

_**Soro gray mo cree slan na laytha bee**_ ['s oro grá mo chroi, slan le na laetha bhí]

_**Samroo go gaymrayd, mo gray mar fee**_ [samradh go geimhreadh, mo grá mar fhís]

_Time is turning, a long time turning_

_Freedom for my thoughts in my heart I'm yearning_

_Freedom to think the thoughts that are burning_

_Let my heart be free!_

Severus thought it had been particularly clever of the boys to print on their album cover the words of all their songs, effectively hiding the importance of this one in them; and too to put the last verse down phonetically with the actual Gaelic words and a translation underneath; a hope for the future that, written to be a song with his input might even work as a chant of itself, something he had not considered. It meant,

'_turning on the first hour, first hour / farewell to the night turning light-heartedly_

_the great love of my heart, farewell to the days that once were / summer through winter my heart like a vision.'_

Typically Lilith had made a free translation of the whole lot into Gaelic and went off to school

singing it; but that was Lilith. She had her own ideas of what was right.

America had an unusual situation so far as its elves were concerned. Very few wizarding emigrants had possessed elves; but the situation in the early days was that in the Southern States at least a wizard might own black muggles. Muggles were never of course as tractable as elves; and many had felt it worth paying stud fees to have half muggle half elven children for the next generation of slaves; with the result that the elven slaves of America were mostly half elven with black skin; and the darker skin of native elves interbreeding had also reiterated that. With the precedent of the half elven children born to the three muggle women held illegally in England it might be that half elven slaves might be subject to automatic freedom in law; though of course the original muggles HAD been enslaved legally by the laws of the time. It was an interesting situation. But freed in law or not, they were still subject to the self punishment curse; the reason wizarding slave owners had wanted the elven blood in their slaves. And doubtless it would be a long time before any kind of fairness would occur even if they could all be freed; muggles in America still had problems arising from the times of slave owning.

And even England had not got around to a law freeing all elves; largely because most elves were afraid to be free. It was a nasty situation all round and likely to be a nightmare for marauders for generations to come. And Americans were not the most courteous to their slaves either; Severus chuckled to himself recalling a dinner given in Malfoy Manor for the American Ambassador; who had addressed some peremptory order to Lala. The little elf had promptly turned to Narcissa and asked,

"Madam Malfoy, is it your wish that I obey this rude person?" to which Narcissa had replied,

"I do not require any of our servants to obey such mannerless oafs who cannot show any degree of breeding."

The Ambassador had had to apologise to Lala – which plainly shocked him – and ask nicely to get his drink refilled; and had retired much embarrassed to be sneered at by English aristocrats just for ordering the slaves around! Severus wondered if he had ever worked out that courtesy cost nothing and set aside a gentleman from a rude fellow.

oOoOo

The various children arrived at the train station bubbling with what they had done in the holidays; and Darryl shuddered at the toy of the year from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes that came with some of the English children. My Little Flying Pony could be fed water or grass; the water came through as water and the grass or hay was compacted and came out with a lift of the tail and appropriate noises. Indeed appropriate noises were also made during the pseudo digestion; and the mechanical creature also whinnied periodically.

Still it had to be less trouble than some of Garjala's more mischievous toys; the Weasley twins had taken her penchant for toys, the new metalworking classes at Hogwarts and liberated goblins to open a toymaking branch of their shop purely for mechanical toys rather than jokes and tricks. It was doing a roaring trade. Mimi had said that she believed that one of the current upper sixth at Hogwarts had submitted some toy designs by way of a job application; this might even be one of them. To each their own! Darryl quickly conferred with Irmi and they decreed that if My Little Flying Ponies behaved themselves on the train then the sixth would organise a gymkhana for them one weekend.

This tickled the imaginations of the five English girls afflicted by ponymania; and had several of the European girls promising to write to their parents to ask that this English toy should be purchased for them.

"Load of rubbish" said Kate Grant gloomily, bearing in mind that her younger sister Lydia was one of the pony-owning five. "This is what you get for having silly aunts with more galleons than sense; could have let her have money towards a really good racing broom if you ask me. I got an improving book and Emily got a ball gown. I ASK you, EMILY!"

"Crumbs!" said Irmi, looking doubtfully at Emily.

"Yes" said Emily "Me who only dances to improve my broom skills of formation work! She's threatening to bring me out after I leave school too!"

"Well that leaves you no choice but to sign straightaway for the Holyhead Harpies" said Darryl.

"Not likely; they're a bunch of aggressive androphobic more-than-lesbian cows, and they're Welsh into the bargain!" said Emily. "I'd rather sign for the Harwitches if I join an all female team; but why should I? I thought I might try for the Chudleigh Cannons; they're at least Professor Ron's team. I've only got a limited time I can play professional quidditch; so sucks to balls because I can always get married if I want to when I retire. The only balls I'M interested in are quaffles, snitches and Bludgers! Besides, playing quidditch I'm more likely to meet a live one than going to soppy balls; THAT's all behind me when I leave school!"

Darryl laughed.

"Balls are considered an acceptable way of meeting members of the opposite sex, our Em; and judging how live they are from their footwork."

"Huh, and doesn't Professor Ron think they're a soppy waste of time too?" said Emily "Believe me, if he wasn't seriously married to about the most dangerous witch alive next to anyone with the surnames Snape or Malfoy I might even bat an eylid or two in his direction!"

"He'd have been more likely to notice if you batted a bludger or two" said Irmi dryly.

"Yes, that's what I like about him" said Emily.

"Oh there's a few unattached Weasleys about who are very talented amateur players" said Darryl "Colin Weasley works in the Goblin Relations office which is about the only credible department in the ministry; and he has a selection of brothers. Roger's a couple of years older than us I believe; the next one down is married to his school sweetheart."

"I guess it IS the best way to do it" said Emily "Get a friend before they get old enough to do the mushy business and make sure you marry him before he has a chance to get away. Madam Granger-Weasley did it that way and see how happy she and Professor Ron are!" she sighed "We never had a chance, us Cackle's girls, to tie one down from friendship; not enough choice, and Irmi snaffled one of them."

Darryl refrained from pointing out that from what he'd heard it had not been that straightforward in Ron and Hermione's case; it would be unkind.

"I object to the term 'snaffled'" said Irmi "Sebastian and I were always close friends from the time I came late. As I recall you were too busy competing with any boys to be friendly."

"Foolish of me" shrugged Emily "It comes of having older brothers. Am I volunteered to help organise this blasted gymkhana?"

"Well you are head of games" said Irmi sweetly.

"For my sins" grinned Emily. "I've never actually been to a gymkhana; what do you do?"

"Cross country races with enchanted obstacles and times when you have to land and show paces on foot; and dressage largely" said Darryl "Dressage is about well turned out beasts who perform strict actions, taking off whilst changing foot, a trotting landing, a standing landing and various takeoffs as well as wingovers and such. My mother had a horsy boyfriend at one point so I had to learn to ride" he added by way of explanation "And enter various events. I hated every minute; though if I'd liked the boyfriend I don't say that I might not have enjoyed it. Ask Cerellia; she's got a connection to both the Malfoys and the Withers families. Lucius does steeplechase on his Granians I believe."

"Probably, knowing Lucius, as much to show off that he has nice legs to all the females present as to actually race" said Emily unkindly. Darryl laughed.

"And there may be something in that! He does have the best seat and hands I've ever seen; though having said that his sons ride well too. Gorbrin enters a few competitions in the holidays; and actually I have considered taking up riding again just because I count Gorbrin among my closest friends. We'll all muck in and come up with some hilarious ideas; Cerellia doesn't compete, her rotter of a father keeps her mother too short for frills like that, so none of them are likely to know if it's done right or not if she hasn't picked anything up from the Withers stepgrandfather."

"Cheers" said Emily "And besides if anyone says it's not exactly like a real gymkhana we say firmly that it's not exactly like using real ponies and sucks to them."

"Quite so" said Irmi, wondering if saying 'sucks' was entirely in keeping with the dignity of a prefect and reflecting that depending on the circumstances it would not have stopped Jade.

And they had collected all their charges with a minimum of bother and no muggles had been menaced by flying and crapping My Little Flying Ponies; and they might get on the train and depart for another term!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Once various English friends had arranged to get My Little Flying Pony for their European friends, training must begin in earnest for the gymkhana; and Severus had to put a strict ban on when and where pony training might take place since he had rather it did not disrupt mealtimes or hobbies. Those whose current hobby was gymkhanas might use an empty classroom, he decreed, instead of the common room for pursuing their equine endeavours.

Lucy Ingate was pursuing other equine endeavours; Severus knew of her love of horses and had bought her a pony at Christmas, the sister of Rainer's Toffee; on the understanding that her pony was also available to help the Care of Domestic Beasts class. Lucy was not sure if she wanted to enter gymkhanas; but she loved learning to ride her pony! Lucy DID have a classical education; and moreover one that included a lot of myth and legend; and decided that Epona, the Celtic horse goddess was a suitable name. Being a thoroughly generous child she also offered the use of Epona to the others in her year; though not all were keen to do more than give it a go for novelty.

Henik enjoyed himself; it was a freedom the years in a wheelchair could never have prepared him for; and he found it easier than controlling a broom. Liriope Hallow too enjoyed herself and wrote home asking if she might have a pony and could she bring it to school; but apart from Lucy herself, who knew already that she was at home in the saddle through visits to Malfoy Manor, it was Cerellia Yaxley, Sarah Elliot and Johanna Schiff who shone.

"Looks like we might have to start a quidpolo team" laughed Severus. "Six of you here; you only need one more to make a team, and Liriope ready to co-opt as seeker!"

"Not such a bad idea" said Lucy seriously "After all, Gorbrin's organising a charity match this term, Hogwarts versus an amateur scratch team. If Hogwarts want to play more often we might give them a game."

Severus laughed.

"Perhaps Cerellia's step grandfather, being a Withers, might see fit to get her a pony as she's taking an interest in a sport dear to HIS ancestor's heart" he said. "And we'll see; at least Epona has better manners than those mechanical monstrosities indoors!"

oOoOo

The mechanical monstrosities were proving rather difficult to train; but at least it kept their owners quiet during the worst weather; even if they made nuisances of themselves outside on sunny days when the Third Year Pony Club exercised Epona.

Epona was swiftly joined by Merrylegs – Liriope's new pony, which was a Pegasan pony, a dazzlingly white grey, temperamental and delicate, and typical that a Hallow should go for something so flamboyant, and easy to see where Liriope got it from. Liriope adored Merrylegs even though Cerellia had to help her learn to ride the rather temperamental beast.

And Cerellia was delighted and moved and flung her arms around old Abastor Withers when he came in person to bring her another Steppe pony cross like Epona; he considering it the best pony around.

The old man was delighted by his mistress' granddaughter's skill; and declared that he would cover the cost of any riding based extras she wanted.

As Lucius, acknowledging the child to be a descendant of his father, had firmly taken over her school fees so she need not be dependant on a father who kept her and her mother as his shameful little secret, and had also brought her mother Archippa, his sister, to live in Malfoy Manor as HIS pensioner, Cerellia's life had changed; and she might have had a pony from Lucius for the asking, had not Severus thought that Abastor Withers might like to be involved in a pony-mad step granddaughter, since Jemima Yaxley, Cerellia's grandmother, might just as well have been his wife if they had only ever bothered to tie the knot.

Abastor was fascinated that Gorbrin Malfoy was reviving Quidpolo; and was spending time getting to know 'young Lucius' and explained that the great grandchildren of his brother, another Stoddard, would be playing in the informal charity match; and as the oldest had two children he firmly enrolled them with Severus on condition that he might also fund a quiddpolo team at Prince Peak.

Severus was NOT about to turn THAT down; and rejoiced. Especially as the old man had turned half snippy over the My Little Flying Pony herd; and Severus had explained that pony mad little girls had, for the most part, only toys to fall back on.

This seemed terrible to a horse-mad old man; who had promptly agreed to go on a pony hunt from the best stock in Europe.

Cerellia's pony was hers however; and she named him Bayard; not perhaps the best name for a pony even if a good one for a horse; but old Abastor was delighted that she knew her folklore!

oOoOo

Cerellia was rejoicing in having had a Christmas Holiday at Malfoy Manor; Lucius was her uncle by blood and had treated her as his niece. Her mother was happy to have been found a useful job helping the twin part fey mothers of two Hogwarts students to start a hostel for girls; she herself knew what it was like to be the daughter of a supposed scarlet woman bereft of support when her protector had died; Archippa did not even remember her real father, and looked upon Abastor, fifty years older than her mother, as the only father she had ever known, since he had taken Jemima and her daughter into his protection when Archippa was a small child.

And Lucius had engineered a reconciliation with him; because it had been a silly quarrel fuelled by stubborn teenage pride that had led her to try to make her own way and to end up having the unfortunate and secretive affair with Lester McMillan; and then she had been too proud to go home and had been a secretly kept woman with a daughter of her own.

And now dear KIND Lucius had insisted that a brother had every right as well as an obligation to look out for his family when they needed it she had gratefully escaped to his care, and was glad to have a job that was really useful. And Cerellia need not worry about offending her father any more; which as he had never been much of a father she was likely to want to do.

Though not perhaps as much as Lucius had managed to offend him, after engaging to reconcile Archippa and Cerellia with Abastor Withers and Jemima Yaxley, Archippa's mother.

Lucius had greeted Lester McMillan and asked him how his other children were doing at Hogwarts; in front of his wife. Lester had blustered; and Lucius said coldly that a man who seduces a Malfoy must be a VERY brave man to treat his own part Malfoy bastard badly; and that he need not think that Cerellia was at his beck and call any more now he, Lucius, had tracked down his sister and her daughter from the secret penury in which she had been incarcerated.

This was not strictly fair since mother and daughter had been living comfortably enough; but it was penury by comparison to Malfoy Manor.

And Lucius had made sure that now Cerellia knew her Malfoy cousins and her Yaxley cousins – those he would give house room too – and other uncles and aunts; and it was all a bit of a whirl but rather splendid to be able to cock a snoot at her father. And cousin Gorbrin had advised Cerellia NOT to write yet to her half sister Emma McMillan at Hogwarts since the girl was a drip who squawked at everything and even jumped at loud noises.

As Narcissa had recounted to Cerellia and Archippa with glee that Lester McMillan's wife had positively squealed in horror at the revelations Lucius made about Lester fathering a child on Archippa – who had been promptly dubbed Pippa by the Madams Malfoy as less of a mouthful – it looked like it ran in HER family.

She had a McMillan cousin in Albert McMillan, Gorbrin's friend, of whom she might be proud; and he promised her every support and that too he would tell the head of the family, Uncle Herbert – who was Cerellia's uncle too – and see that she got to know at least cousin Ernie and his children.

Cerellia had shared all this with Liriope on the train; and Liriope rejoiced for her friend. It meant too that she would not have to be so careful about what she suggested they might do in the holidays; as Lucius Malfoy's niece would not be as strapped for cash as a despised bastard daughter of a less prominent man was.

oOoOo

The gymkhana for My Little Flying Pony took place one Saturday; and it may have been a bit of a farce – especially the dressage, where Emily declared that the only prize possible was for the biggest turd dropped – but everyone had fun, which had been the whole point.

oOoOo

The Ubiquitous Marauders broke out in mischief shortly after this, not having been involved in gymkhanamania; and the weather keeping them in with nasty storms and high wind. They were no more musical than the Bee Marauders; but unlike their older counterparts they knew their limitations in this respect, and involved Siegfried Snape Von Eiche, who was not averse to the occasional bit of harmless mischief. Siegfried WAS musical and gave the Ubiquitous Marauders some cogent lessons before they began their big enchantment of all the castle toilets.

They were planning on having the toilet pans sing in four part harmony, which was ambitious, but as Siegfried said achievable so long as they did not go for too much complexity.

The bass part was simple; four notes repeated over and over with the words 'pong, pong, pong, pong'; the next part sang 'efluuuvium, effluuuuvium' and the melody was carried on the words 'effluvium, effluvium, carcaceous and fetid effluvium' as a tribute to Severus' vocabulary; and the fourth part was decided to be too difficult to script so was restricted to flushing in rhythm like a mad lavatorial cymbal, as Wilhelm put it, and clattering the seat like castanets.

The whole jape had been Wilhelm's idea; not that the rest had been slow to catch on.

Apart from the percussion inspired stools there was no real disruption; and Severus checked to see how long it was likely to last and found that as the charms would run down after a day or so, people might as well just avoid the percussive stalls and certain voices would just be a little more….muffled…..while they were in use.

The Ubiquitous Marauders were quite surprised to get away with it; but as Severus said, it did no harm and enlivened the dark winter days. He was well aware that harmless mischief was just a part of school life.

Antti Laakkonen complained of course; but Antti had NOT checked which stalls held stools with chattering lids and had very nearly come to grief. His classmates told him not to be a blithering idiot and to use a safe stall next time.

And Leneli Accola, who had a period, asked Krait if she might use the staff loo for the duration in case one of the stalls was turned vampiric by her bleeding.

Krait could see the girl had a very real fear of such a thing, daft though it might seem; and granted permission. It was a small concession for the peace of mind of the girl, and when a girl had a period it was not a good time to start lectures on silly fears.

oOoOo

The toilets soon wound down their musical interlude; and the next piece of excitement could not be attributed to any Marauders at all.

Had not Karin Meyer of the second been the daughter of two muggleborn, she might not have gone to a muggle primary school in Germany and might not have learned about dinosaurs.

And had she not learned about dinosaurs she might not have commented idly that the pigeons who were sheltering from the wind in the crevices of the castle walls were, arguably, dinosaurs because of their heritance.

Birgitta Guttmann also knew something about dinosaurs and an idle conversation of the girls in the second grew into speculation that if pigeons were no more than dinosaurs in disguise then it should be easy to transfigure them.

Birgitta was the best at transfigurations; but she was not alone in the experiment. And as there was only one dinosaur any of them could actually agree to recognising there was soon a small flock – if the term was appropriate – of Tyrannosaurus Rex precariously perched on the wall.

It was perhaps fortunate that they were still the same size as pigeons.

Birgitta started turning them back; the rest of the girls panicked.

One tyrannosaur fell to its death – having no wings – and the rest started cautiously negotiating the wall.

Having climbed down the four feet or so to the ledge two promptly ripped each other to shreds; Birgitta was still trying to rescue the poor creatures from the results of curiosity and a number promptly flew away from the scary toothed lizards that had been their flock mates.

One went out of her sight and Birgitta and friends looked at each other in horror.

"We'll HAVE to go outside after it" said Birgitta.

"I THINK we should actually tell Professor Snape" said Solange.

"I agree" said Evadne.

"We've lost the wretched beast; there's no guarantee we could find it anyway" agreed Germaine, reluctantly.

They trotted off to the Head's office to confess.

Severus sighed.

"One of those 'I didn't think' situations" he said "Well done for returning – how many was it? To their natural forms Birgitta."

"I think it was around a dozen" said Birgitta "Most of them; only four did I fail to do"

"It's not as though pigeons can't be a pest" said Severus. "I'll use a finding charm….."

He was interrupted by a loud but muffled MIAOW.

He opened the door for Stripy the school Leopard; who dropped at his feet the body of a very small Tyrannosaur.

"Gosh Stripy, you ARE clever!" said Birgitta, fussing the big cat's ears. Stripy purred loudly.

Being done about the ears made up for a rather strange and unexpected new toy which had tried to fight back; though this one at least she wasn't in trouble over and she was allowed to catch it. Stripy had been shut out of the room for gymkhana practice after having leaped straight up to catch one of the My Little Flying Ponies which she had spat out in disgust as the springs came through.

"Well that appears to solve the problem of the disappearing Tyrannosaur" said Severus dryly. "I want you each to write out 'for the want of a nail'; only once, and not to hand in, but to keep and ponder on. You did right to come and tell me however; I am pleased with you for that."

Birgitta speculated, though did not say, that had they NOT gone to him straight away they might have been copying the warning poem more than once as punishment. Sometimes trying to sort things out yourself was not a good idea; and she conceded as much.

Sometimes being overcome by curiosity was also not a good idea.

oOoOo

The weather started improving and the higher spirits could be moved outside more often to play quidditch; and too, with the arrival of more ponies, quiddpolo.

Sandalla had been invited onto the team of the second years as she rode the sentient flying horses of Belsornia at home as well as ordinary flying horses and ponies and her adopted twin Svetlana had come to love horses too; and Yelisaveta Koldunova was horse mad. Sandalla therefore pointed out that really, as Mr Withers had provided enough ponies for two teams, as one would need to actually get a game, the juniors should really pick a junior and she, her sister and friend would put together a middle school and senior team.

None of the Grant girls were horsy; but George Ingate turned out to be as good at riding as his sister, indeed better; and Vya too had an unexpected talent, though the Visick twins preferred to cheer on their friends, so that swelled Sandalla's team to five; Rose Hubble, good as she was on a broom was a danger to everyone, not least herself on horseback. Siegfried had, as a nobleman, of course learned to ride; but preferred not to play this new game so long as others could make up the team.

The juniors meanwhile grabbed Paul Ingate to see if his skills equalled those of his brother and sister; and found that he too was a natural.

"I should have got ponies years ago" said Severus to George "I'll write to Jem too and apologise for not doing so to give you four extra skills."

George shrugged.

"We've never missed what we never had; it took Lucy being pony-mad to find out we might have skills. I have to say, I do hope there's likely to be a professional league started because I think I'm actually going to be better at this than at quidditch; and my chances of getting to play professional quidditch were always a little slim, with better players around. It gives me another option; but I say, Severus, don't go feeling bad about it because it would never have occurred to me to ask to ride more than the mucking about we're allowed with the ponies in Lucius' stables."

"Thank you George" said Severus. "And I too hope that you may have a chance to shine if a league is started."

Making up the middle school team was harder; of the fourth years, only Cecilia Villeneuve was interested – and incidentally quite brilliant – though her twin brother declared that horses converted grass to compost to grow potioneering ingredients and why not just use them for that. Batty Dubois had a go and was confined in the sanatorium while Severus chanted over her concussion – twice – and again for the broken arm, at which point she gave up and decided that riding was too dangerous and she'd as soon stick to nice safe occupations like fighting dark wizards.

Fortunately Marius Schreiber in the lower sixth turned out to have a previously unexpected talent; and though he did not shine in quidditch, being neither brilliant nor poor, his skills with a lacrosse stick had him quickly moved to position of seeker. The middle school drafted him firmly.

The upper school decided to put together a scratch team of those with passing interest, to give the younger ones a game – after all, if there were more teams than ponies it did not matter since only two teams would play at once – and Darryl lead a team with Irmi from the upper sixth, and Clementine, Fred Lowther, whose brother declined, Randolph Wright, Muriel and Prudence, who had a surprising level of talent on horse back, for one who had never ridden before.

Of the juniors, having tried out the first years, Bruno and Wilhelm enjoyed the game and were then available for reserves; Wilhem had learned to ride on Eduard's horses. Bruno's sister Leneli just liked to ride, rather than to play; and Roseli had not been interested.

They watched on the newly-invented wide screen that was a partial globe the exciting charity match between Hogwarts and the scratch team; most of the amateur team were Withers-Weasleys or Malfoys. Rose was cheering for the Amateur Team because one of the Withers-Weasley brothers was married to a Hubble; which was fair enough. Those of Malfoy connections laughed and pointed out that they had relatives on both teams as Gorbrin was leading the school team as seeker, and Draco led the Amateur Team.

It was an exciting game; there were frequent breaks, unlike in quidditch, to rest the horses but even so it was fast paced. Draco caught the snitch but a timely tackle from Gorbrin knocked it away to gasps from the audience. Draco however soon had the snitch again; and this time thrust the stick of the lacrosse net back fast so that he could get hand to snitch before being tackled.

"That's a lesson in how to do it" said Marius.

"Yes; but if you're at full stretch to catch the thing, not always practical without dropping the stick" said Paul, who had been promoted to junior team seeker.

"Stick work we can all practise in bad weather in the great hall" said Lucy "Just catching and tackling to give our seekers practice. It's not going to be as good as doing it on a horse, but if we put a barrier charm to hold the snitch low it's at least some practice."

And the blooded felt, after the match, that Lucius and his wives had now decided to be part of the group; and rejoiced in new bloodkin.

oOoOo

Of the quiddpoloists, only George was also in the first team for quidditch and though Emily Grant did not PLAY Quiddpolo she was, as head of games, interested.

"George, you're my successor as head of games as you play both AND take an interest in hurley" said Emily "which being so, I designate you as my deputy with powers of a prefect if Professor Snape will permit that, to be head of quiddpolo."

Severus was glad to agree; George was steady and not likely to abuse the power of being the effective only fifth year prefect.

The first game of the better weather was to be against the Beauvais Broomwonders; and the French team exclaimed to find clear weather above such extremely poor conditions below.

The school team had a certain advantage however; being used to the clear thin air of the horn. The valley based French team were soon blowing, though their experience kept them playing well.

Zoë's brilliance as a keeper showed and with Fred and Peter as beaters kept the French scoring down; but winded or no the Broomwonders were professionals, and it was only by catching the snitch at just the right time that Arbrek managed to save a loss and force a draw.

"You cheeldren are better zan we expected" said the captain of the visiting team. "Eet was a ver' good game; and 'ow you say, keep us on our feet."

"Toes" said Emily "The saying is to keep one on one's toes; your English is excellent, m'sieur."

"Your French is good also" said the captain.

There was a round of florid compliments and Emily emerged with the feeling that the visiting team had won THAT contest.

Evadne Horrocks wanted to photograph and collect all the autographs of course; but that was Evadne; and Emily explained that the junior school girl had a passion for making biographies of the famous.

Few professional players can resist that sort of flattery and Evadne got her autographs.

When one of the players recognised Arsène Le Fèvre as well, naturally Evadne wanted to know all about why HE was famous; as so far as she knew, he was a contemporary and friend of Madam Granger who had duelled her – and actually WON – in a school duelling contest.

Arsène was also duly pursued by Evadne and the admiring little girl asked for details too of his life. Arsène was nothing loath; it had tickled him at first to be just one more adult student in a school where everyone was ignorant of his career as a duellist – Severus encouraged a duelling club informally run but did not follow the league through sports pages, and his lack of interest rather set the tone – but it was becoming just a bit irksome that nobody knew him. Arsène was expansive and Evadne was delighted.

It might have been better had not Arsène spoken of a duel due to take place in Innsbruck, between two contestants, both of whom he had bested in the past; because Evadne's imagination had been fired by his tales that anyone else might have told the little girl held a touch of the Gasconade, as the French call boasting.

Indeed, the idea of teaching was starting to pall on Arsène, who was missing the limelight; and he planned to resume his career but with chanting as an added dimension.

Evadne meanwhile applied for permission to go into Innsbruck to see the duel; and Severus denied it. Had either contestant been a relative, or someone she knew well, he told her, he might have hesitated; but public duelling contests could be rather rough events with unsavoury people present and not suitable for a little girl.

Evadne tried to explain that she needed their autographs to help extend her biography of Monsieur Le Fèvre; but Severus was adamant.

Evadne was much disappointed.

oOoOo

Meanwhile the Quidditch first team was to visit Schloss Adler to play an away match as a knockabout and informal contest against Jade's subsidised school. They were to be side-along apparated, those who could not apparate for themselves, which was everyone except the Lowther twins; and hopefully Emily. They were waiting on the year's apparating exams so she had the chance to pass, since she had been too young the year before.

The Lowther twins were just old enough; but as Marauders had been apparating for years of course.

Emily had determination in spades; and passed the test with flying colours.

The team was ready to leave in the care of Viktor as coach, Lydia as chaperone to the girls and because she did actually care about quidditch; and Ron as quidditch teacher; and without Hermione because she did not really give a toss about quidditch.

Severus was going too out of courtesy; until Birgitta Guttmann grabbed him by the hand and said,

"Oh please, Herr Professor, I am not sneaking wish to be, but we are afraid that Evadne to Innsbruck has gone." Her grammar disintegrated into Germanic with the stress of the moment.

Severus stiffened.

"Tell me what you know, Birgitta; it is not sneaking" he said.

"Evadne was much disappointed that she had not permission gained to visit a duelling competition; it is about her blasted autographs, not that any interest has she in such things" said Birgitta "And she has the bee in her hat. And when Evadne has a bee in her hat, of consequences she does not always think; and she was counting out her muggle money last night, that we use converted from our pocket money to learn in muggle studies; and she had a muggle train timetable."

"Merlin's beard!" swore Severus. "You have done quite right to come to me Birgitta; now run and fetch for me Evadne's hairbrush and then ask Madam Gimlet to come to my office."

Birgitta knew better than to waste time asking questions and ran to do the Headmaster's bidding.

Madam Gimlet was surprised; but went as requested.

"Severus? Birgitta said you wanted me."

"Yes; I thought to combine a ritual finding with your divinational skills so that rather than send a physical object after a truant we might use divining rods and a map" said Severus "Evadne Horrocks has gone haring off to Innsbruck for autographs, drat the silly child."

"My goodness!" said Carmenta Gimlet "Evadne is the last child I should have expected to have gone haring off disobediently – except perhaps the Finnish, er, Antti Laakkonen."

"Poor child, everyone thinks of him as the Finnish Flobberworm" said Severus. "I know you would have told me had you had any inkling."

"That's why I teach and am not an insurance diviner" said Carmenta dryly "I did not know that ritual could be combined with divination however."

"I don't know if it can" said Severus "We're about to experiment. I don't see why it shouldn't work; you have some modest skill with divining rods; we've never tried you on a map before, but the point of the ritual is to attune the rods to the object – or rather person – to be found and hence to enhance your efficacy."

"You are extremely clever, Severus; and I have every faith in your ability. I only hope mine is sufficient" said Carmenta.

"I am sure it will be" said Severus "I know – more or less – where she's heading; I'd just quite like to head her off before she gets there."

He laid the divining rods on the hairbrush and chanted softly, walking round the objects to bind them ritually one to another. Then he nodded to Carmenta Gimlet to take up the rods and apply them to the large scale map that covered the rail route to Innsbruck.

Carmenta Gimlet concentrated on the divining rods; and gasped as they dragged her hands across the map, meeting with a clang right within Innsbruck. Severus's breath hissed in exasperation – aimed at Evadne, not Carmenta – and threw down a map of the town itself. The divining rods were off again and clanged together on a place that Severus knew was within wizarding space.

"Thank you Carmenta" he said; and apparated smoothly away.

oOoOo

Evadne had got up very early and had scrambled down the mountainside because she knew perfectly well that Strang would never send her down in the cable car without asking a lot of searching questions. She had to go as far as the muggle village to which the rack rail ran all year round twice a day to the nearest muggle railhead which was not far. She caught the rack milk train out and was soon on the first muggle train to Innsbruck in the larger village that served as a market town to the small hamlets around. She was pleased with herself that she had remembered to ask for a return ticket; and that her German was now good enough to cope. And if she got a few strange looks for being a schoolgirl on her own she was too scared and excited to notice.

Finding her way to the duelling competiton was not hard; there were posters visible only to the eye of the magically active. It was in a large building in a portion of wizarding space; and Evadne arrived as too did some early spectators.

That was the point at which she started to get really scared; because some of the people arriving were distinctly scary people. Goblins as such did not scare her; but the hard faced goblin bookie and his security troll were not people she wanted to be close to; nor the group of rough looking humans whose German was so ill educated that she could not understand a word they said. The expensively dressed visitors almost all had bodyguards of some description, and the ordinary looking people walked with caution and stayed out of the way of both expensive and rougher elements.

Evadne hesitated; and dithered. She was just gathering her courage to walk on in when a loud CRAC behind her made her jump; and she gave a little scream as her arm was seized.

"Evadne you NAUGHTY child!" scolded Professor Snape's voice.

In truth, Evadne was so relieved she turned round and threw herself on him, sobbing. Severus sighed, and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"NOW do you see why I forbade you, you silly infant?" he said. "And they're frightening enough even without being inside in the close, airless, cramped arena, where you might be almost on the lap of someone's security troll. Duelling is a popular sport; but it's also a sport followed by those for whom the betting is more interesting than the sport itself. We are going back to school."

"Yes Professor" said Evadne meekly. The description of the interior had completely undermined any desire on her part to go in. Severus apparated them both back to his office.

"You may thank Madam Gimlet for using her divining skills to find exactly where you were; and apologise to her for taking up her time" said Severus harshly "And you will write an apology to your dormitory mates in which you will express your deepest regret for frightening them. That I think will be almost sufficient punishment for your disobedience since you have punished yourself with a good fright; save that for the rest of the term I shall require you to report to my office first thing in the morning, at noon, and before you go to bed so that I may know where you are."

That lack of trust really hurt more than anything else; and Evadne burst into tears.

She struggled through the thanks and apology to Madam Gimlet; and being dismissed fled.

And being Evadne, she conscientiously wrote her apology to the other girls in her dormitory straight away. She WAS sorry she had scared anyone; and she was also now very well aware why the excursion had been banned!

Evadne had never disobeyed any stricture in her life before and this was, she vowed, to be the last time!


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Severus caught up with the quidditch team by apparating directly to the subsidised school and ignoring the fact that it was an anti-apparating zone.

"What kept you Sev mate?" asked Ron.

"A truant; Evadne Horrocks took a side trip to Innsbruck and I went to retrieve her" said Severus grimly.

"Horrocks? She's a prig's prig!" said Lydia.

"She was autograph hunting" groaned Severus.

"'Nuff said" said Lydia

oOoOo

Emily introduced her team to the home players and their spectators. She did not bother with surnames; Severus had directed her on this to allow the other team to do likewise in case any should be 'gan Prok' or 'child of no man' which was shaming; and Fred and Peter as well as the four adults were aware of the bloodsong of six others besides Ulvik. The twins grinned across at the Schloss Adler marauders and Severus smiled austerely to himself; not only had the lad now felt his cohorts to be ready, he appeared to have found more. Well seven was a large number – though there was a group of nine in Hogwarts – but in such a new enterprise perhaps it was necessary. And too one had to remember that only the keenest, brightest, and most fearless would choose to be first in a new school for the despised like this anyway. Any who feared retribution, shied away from unaccustomed hard work or just was afraid of anything different would not have applied.

The very young goblin who was team captain of the new school was called Grelleg; and he introduced HIS team; himself as seeker – he and Arbrek eyed each other up thoughtfully – Cnebbic as keeper; Witlac, Valerie and Safraxa as chasers; and Torschik and Leta as beaters. Severus noted Ulvik considering that the Prince Peak team had one goblin on it and their team had one human; and was glad that his team had impeccable manners and no problem with goblins in case the home team wondered if Arbrek had been included as a sop to them. The poor could be very touchy; Severus remembered it from personal experience.

There were refreshments and smalltalk first, and Peter and Fred went briefly to ruffle the hair of the first Schloss Adler marauders; and dubbed then the First Eagle Marauders.

It was a good a marauding name as any for those of the Castle of the Eagles; and when the twins whistled the theme from 'Where Eagles Dare' Ulvik and friends merely looked puzzled.

Severus smiled to himself; they'd see the film soon enough. And Ron was beckoning over the twins to go and play. They took their leave of the kids and ran over to get their brooms.

The young marauders looked sober; Severus wondered what they were discussing; perhaps they were just impressed to have been given respect by older marauders; perhaps they realised how much action the twins had already seen. As they held hands he somehow suspected that they were coming to terms with the real business of being marauders.

oOoOo

The outcome of the match really was in no doubt; the Prince Peak team flew rings around the Schloss Adler team. But they did the new team the compliment of not holding back; and called compliments about well executed moves. And then it was over, Grelleg having been taken out with the Wronski feint by Arbrek, who returned to find the snitch he had permitted briefly out of his sight; risky but sometimes worth it to ditch an opponent who was good enough to be trouble. And the Prince Peak team slapped all their opponents on the backs and held a detailed post mortem over Kaffee und Kuchen, pointing out that after all they were largely older, bigger AND more experienced than the home team but it had seemed a little impolite to send their second team. Emily was a good captain and had an excellent memory for sports even if she had difficulty remembering academic facts thought Severus with a sigh; and she was doing well to explain the good moves, and more tactfully, the mistakes of the opposing team. Emily acquires tact! Wonders will never cease, thought Severus. She WILL make a good sports teacher.

"I appreciate it" said Grelleg of Emily's explanation as to why they brought the first team. "We learned a lot playing a team that's used to playing professional teams; and I think Cnebbic and I have learned a lot too about broomsurfing by watching those of you who do it."

"Zoë's new to the position of Keeper – rather good at it though – having been promoted from the second team this year and tried out in it rather than her accustomed position as chaser" said Emily. "The twins are teaching her broomsurfing and more so she'll either kill her silly self or be even better next time we meet."

Grelleg grinned at Zoë. "It is rather a crazy thing we do, isn't it?" he said.

Zoë smiled and nodded shyly. As the baby of the team she felt shy at the best of times, without being surrounded by strangers!

"We're considering sending Grelleg here, and Cnebbic too, on a quidditch scholarship to you at the Peak after they have their ZP's" said Jade. "To benefit from Viktor's and Ron's rather expert tuition. And possibly Valerie might ask her father to send her to you too" she added. "Too bad for our team; but our pupils and their needs are our priorities. It's a couple of years away anyhow as Grelleg's in the third; three for Cnebbic and Val in the second. And the boys at least will have no trouble with any of the academic work in Prince Peak especially Grelleg who's one of our star pupils; Val is less of a high flyer but she's a good hard working girl."

"And I'm the team baby in the third!" Zoë was shocked into saying. "We should have played our younger players against you!"

"It does us no harm to be pushed" said Grelleg. "Perhaps another time we can play a round Robin; our two teams each against your two."

"But best not to play Beauxbatons" said Arbrek with a straight face "It would be poor for their morale to be crushed by a team from a new school whose oldest member is but thirteen."

"NO Beauxbatons jokes please!" said Jade "I have a protégé in Durmstrang who's going to teach there when she leaves school; give the French a bit of class."

"Darryl is talking of teaching there for a year while Mimi finishes at Hogwarts until your protégé leaves school" said Peter "As teaching practice; he can offer what Madam Maxime really wants."

"I'm NOT rising to your innuendo Peter Lowther; yes Darryl is a very fine chanter."

"And there was I planning on saying that he really knows how to use his tongue!" quipped Peter.

Severus leaned over and cuffed him with two fingers.

"And in front of children you horrid brat!" he said. "Including my grandson!"

Fortunately, apart from the fact that he was making smutty jokes the actual meaning apparently passed the first Eagle Marauders by.

And the young marauders were looking far to smug NOT to have been involved in the folded paper birds singing a rather blunt variation on one of the more irritating German Wizarding Wireless advertising jingles! It was from the jingle of a manufacturer of broom repair kits; and Severus knew he would never hear it again without thinking of this alternative version:

"_If your dark wizard's broken and his morals lost or bent _

_just bring him to Schloss Adler where clever kids are sent_

_if he's lost his marbles and you don't know where to turn_

_send him to Schloss Adler where a lesson he will learn!_

_We'll kick him in the belly_

_We'll kick him in the knees_

_We'll use a thorough binding spell _

_And cover him with fleas!"_

oOoOo

Severus made sure to praise Emily as they returned home.

"You went through that play very sensitively as well as thoroughly" he said.

Emily flushed, pleased.

"I rather thought that they might be a little fragile around the edges; and they ARE very young. They need more encouragement than critique."

"If you've learned to gauge when that is necessary my dear child, you will be a great teacher" said Severus "And if you do mean to ask Hellibore if you can train girls at his academy I'll most certainly back you; whether you take a year coaching a pro team or not."

Emily looked pleased.

"I did think I'd take a year coaching; for the experience. Coach Krumm said he'd arrange for me to be junior coach with his old team which I can't pronounce; quidditch is played in English but he'll teach me Bulgarian the quick way to take part in deeper discussions."

Severus reflected that it was as well she could be taught the quick way; after five years of trilingual lessons, Emily's French and German were still heavily accented with the strains of the Home Counties.

Peter could not resist seeking out Darryl on their return.

"I told Jade that you were able to offer what Madam Maxime really wants" he said "A really flexible and clever tongue…AWK!"

He had become an avian-like creature that looked as though it might have been designed by Ronald Searle.

"Observe" said Darryl in his snidest voice "The all too common species Brattus Bratticus, which might just get hunted to extinction for its foolish habit of squawking its irritating song in the hearing of hunters. And I shan't turn you back until you cry pax" he added.

"Serves you right" said Fred.

"PAX!" squawked the Peter-bird.

Darryl returned him to his normal appearance.

"You ARE good" said Peter, checking surreptitiously that he had no feathers left.

"Yes" said Darryl "And I'm also nervous enough of Madam Maxime and her large French embraces not to find that comment of yours as funny as you do. It might be fun winding up the French for a year and seeing if any of them ARE capable of more than footerin' aboot wi' magic as Seagh would put it; Hercule rates the Ancient Runes chap who taught him, a Monsiuer Devereaux; and he was at the symposium too; and he'll be pleased that chanting brings a greater meaning to HIS subject."

"You'll do fine" said Peter "Only you may have to beat off the older French girls with a beater's bat; I'll lend you my old one."

"You are pushing it" said Darryl.

Fred Gibbsed his brother.

"Ain't going to be a French girl as neat and beautiful as your Mimi; and I imagine she knows it" he said.

Darryl chewed a lip.

"She IS still sensitive that I used to be racist and that she's an elf and there's all that Parisian chic" he said. "She OUGHT to know there's nobody in the world quite like her, but I think deep down she wonders if I might, when I'm away from her…. Because of the myth of French women and style….. you know."

The twins both smote Darryl on the back.

"You just remind her that the French invented perfume to cover up that they don't wash, Darryl mate" said Peter.

Darryl brightened.

"That's actually really practical; cheers Pete" he said.

"Well, gotta make amends for putting your back up!" Peter grinned.

Darryl smiled back. These twin brothers of his were less easy to understand than Victor and Seagh – both of whom he missed while they infiltrated and disbanded the Odessa in the Ukraine – but they WERE still his brothers.

oOoOo

Now that the weather was better, the art class went sketching outside; and Werner winked at his fellows and produced a drawing of several boxes in descending order of size ascending his page.

"Werner" said Callum, coming up behind him, "What do you call that?"

"Well sir, I've been reading about cubism and I thought I'd give it a go to represent these mountains…. You don't like it then" as Callum gave him the Gibbs two fingered cuff.

"Let me first remind you, young man" said Callum "That the cubists started their movement after each of them had already learned to draw and paint conventionally; because to break the rules you have to have an intimate understanding of what the rules ARE. If you choose to take to cubism when you're fully trained, that's your funeral; meanwhile you will apply the principles of perspective and representation according to the law of Professor Prince."

"Yes sir" said Werner unabashed. "It doesn't count as freer drawing then?"

"No sprout it does not" said Callum "Get another sheet. You have at least managed – I suspect without meaning to – the proportions of each part of the mountain in your child's scrawl of building blocks so you may keep it as reference and to remind you that I don't like it."

Werner grinned, got a new sheet and applied himself.

Sometimes in spring one had to break out a bit in mischief!

"Werner you must be careful; if you don't take it seriously, Professor Prince might BAN you!" whispered Jöran in real concern.

"I know how far he'll let me go; I've had a whole more year than you" said Werner "He'll take a bit of ragging – occasionally; so long as it's not too much or takes up too much time."

"Or wastes too many materials" added Callum. "Jöran, I can take a joke; and I'm glad it was. I was horribly afraid Werner was serious; he DOES like things to be regular after all."

"Only things that are supposed to be, sir" said Werner "Mountains are supposed to be untidy looking things and it's what makes them beautiful. Nature is sort of untidy by well, nature; and I guess the art of an artist is to know what to leave out to tidy it up just enough."

"And I suppose that's as good a summation as any" said Callum. "It's the untidy bits – the random variation – that makes nature appeal to the senses; because although one might admire the near perfect cone of Mt Fuji, one admires it because it's the only one in the world; and actually it isn't totally perfect or it would look wrong. The element of randomness actually is a whole branch of Muggle mathematics, their name for Arithmancy, that is just so far post NEWT level it makes the heads of anyone but Madam Granger and Madam Malfoy and Jade Luytens not merely ache but fire random stinging hexes from itself into the migraine centre. And actually yes, I do happen to know they understand it because they were having a conversation about it in Malfoy Manor at the Symposium which is one reason I dropped the notes I had for the new art exams and left in a hurry. Arithmancy and I parted company in the second year; I had to go back and cover enough to feed it into your lessons on pattern magic. My wife's the arithmancer; and even she reckons those three are out there beyond the wall, and probably Lilith Snape too. Even Sev – er, Professor Snape – starts looking a little glazed!"

"Well sir, if you're poor at Arithmancy that's encouraging for the rest of us who struggle" said Roseli, who loathed the subject.

"Fortunately there are those who DO understand enough to make aides for those of us who do not; muggles use computers to generate whole landscapes that one can go and look around that don't exist anywhere except as a stream of numbers; you can look at an apparent photograph of the moon or Mars without even going there; or a planet with two suns, or several moons. Muggles want something more than their mundane existence you see; which is why a lot of their fiction involves either magic – some of it very strange – or science fiction, which can include powers of the mind, which they count as a possible and believable form of magic. Like the Force; I presume you've all seen Star wars?"

"Yes sir" said Roseli.

"They haven't shown it for the first yet sir" said Paul "I've seen it but Jöran hasn't."

"Well I'll make a suggestion that it's time you did; it has some quite classic scenes that are excellent illustrations of impact and composition" said Callum. "That's much better by the way, Werner, with a mountain shaped mountain; I think you'll find that shadow you're roughing in there on the snowfield is frustrating you because it actually verges on the green."

"Why so it does!" said Werner, looking again.

"Learning to look is half the battle of learning to draw" said Callum "And the homework for the lot of you this week is to find an object; and just look at it, for as long or as often as you can. Memorise its every detail. Next week you'll describe it to me fully and then draw it from memory; and only then will I permit you to actually draw it from life. And we'll compare and contrast the two pictures and see how well you REALLY looked at it. It will be harder than you think; and Randolph is wincing because he knows how hard it's going to be. We're starting to lose the light; your sketches will have to stand as they are because you'll never recapture the moment. And THAT is another reason why remembering detail can be so important; to recapture the fleeting moment of a particular and transient effect of light. When you can look at a scene for ten seconds and then transfer it perfectly to canvas without further reference you will have truly achieved the power to look. And I think you can number the people who've learned to do that in the whole history of art on one hand; but it's something to strive for. If we detour through the village I'll stand you cakes and coffee in their gasthof" he added.

He got a cheer for that!

oOoOo

Art and sports might be the only subjects actually affected directly by the good weather, but it was noticeable that the efforts of all classes picked up with longer light in the evenings and better weather outside; because spirits lifted. Pony rides became popular, though most of the younger ones at least were glad to have their mount on a leading rein with an encouraging senior on a broom beside them, or even on the ground with the pony flying no more than ten or fifteen feet above the ground.

Silvina was hard at work; the different gaits of the flying horses suggested each different tunes to her and she was pulling together all the themes she had been scribbling down to form her first symphony. It was hard; but it was coming together! Silvina might be found anywhere with a scrap of manuscript and a pencil to hand, including circling the mountain on ponyback. Severus picked a relatively placid mount for her that would not object too much to having its rider ignore reins or leg control because of being deep in a Euterpian muse. Silvina could take or leave flying on horseback; it was a means to get from place to place. But she felt she ought to experience it at first hand to add to her music as well as writing how she was moved by the sight of the beautiful and graceful creatures. Silvina was nothing if not thorough; though she quite lost the muse for several days when in the middle of jotting down a graceful and jaunty little passage to be interrupted by her mount breaking wind.

"Horses are for LOOKING at" she said crossly after coming in to land "They SO are not for getting close enough to that you experience the coarser side of them!"

Severus laughed.

"I'm not a great one for riding myself" he said "Never had any opportunity in my young day! They look so graceful and beautiful up in the sky; and I do admit it does nothing to prepare you for the realities of all the mucking out and less beautiful side of them! Not to mention how actually scary it is being on the back of a rather big animal a long way up in the air and no charms to steer it by."

"Oh I don't worry much about that" said Silvina "Now I'm blooded I can always fly if I fall off; so there's no real fear; besides I suppose I have infinite faith in you, dad, to rescue me. It's the smell of horse and the permanent sounds of digestion and the more apparent sounds of digestion and the funny noises they make in their throat. They're not pretty any more once you get too close is all."

There were no words of comfort Severus could find on that subject.

oOoOo

Seagh and Victor blew in with news of their endeavours in the Ukraine.

"We WERE working subtly and quietly, poking here, prodding there, getting the upper and middle echelons to question their values, pick up on the logical inconsistencies" said Victor "And then Seagh lost his temper."

"Weel Grrand Duke Jerkitoff or whatever the wee sumpf ca's himself wisnae bein' rreasonable ye ken" said Seagh "He was about to flog a man whose elf he had been borrowing that wisnae sae servile ony mair."

"He turned Miroslav Ivianuk – which is the fellow's name – into a house elf with minimal chanting after apparating him OUTside the line of our chant" said Victor. "Tied to himself by blood and then ordering the fellow to build a house and cook the food and so on; and called him Miri. Kept him there for three days and then asked the fellow how much he liked working for him; and let him self punish before asking him if he thought any thinking being should have that sort of compulsion. Took another week or so to get him to admit it; and mean it too. So we took him back into Europe proper to let him see the difference and the relief on his face was amazing!"

"I explained that the transfiguration had been a total one; that there had been no difference in the way he thought and felt to the way a house elf did; and that I could arrange for him to spend time as a goblin and a muggle if he didn't shut up and listen" said Seagh. "which led to a lot of argument; and I showed him the internet and disabled his magic genes so he'd have to live as a muggle for a few days and arranged to have him introduced to a university studying mathematics as he claimed to be good at Arithmancy. He isn't, by the way; any one of our senior arithmancers is way better than him."

"We DO rather emphasise it" said Victor. "I feel a bit superfluous now so I'll get back to helping out Frieda and Horst if it's all the same to anyone."

"Hoots, mon! I can handle the sumpf fine weel!" said Seagh. "Though it is muckle grateful I am of yer help over the infeeltration and pokin' in the conscience."

"What's happening about Ivianuk?" asked Severus.

"Well once he found out that muggle kids could discuss mathematics above the level he could understand and knew enough to realise just how good they were he got very quiet; and then I deposited him on Count Lev Levedev – the one who's daughter was one of Jade's fags in Durmstrang? Good chap" said Seagh "I told him pretty much everything about the blood pact and the elf chant and then found out his daughter had already told him. I liked him; and I sort of left Jerkitoff kind of half as his guest, half prisoner. He isn't really a Grand Duke, he's the younger son of a baron with delusions of adequacy. Count Lev and I were sort of planning on mopping up between us."

"Well you boys HAVE been busy" said Severus "Am I going to hear anything about it on the Wizarding Wireless news?"

"Haven't a clue" said Seagh. "Well that's Ihor and Leva's country mostly denazified; which is like being dedoxified only they smell more of bad manners."

"It's a couple of his advisors who are the truly nasty ones" said Victor "Most of them are idealistic fools with no idea of the realities of life. Which unfortunately makes the worst Nazis because they do what they do with a heavy heart yet the firm conviction it's the only way. I believe Seagh was planning on turning large swathes of them into goblins and dropping them in various goblin communities with primed goblin community leaders who'll give them help and succour – without of course believing any wild stories that they should be human – and let them learn that goblins can be humanitarian too. And of course be on the wrong end of unreasoning prejudice. And like with Ivianuk, disable the magic and dump some in muggle communities – with a helpful person who knows how to survive to help out. It'll take a couple of months perhaps; maybe less. But brute force is the only way to complete the process of education."

"I'm afraid you're right" said Severus "Jade virtually hijacked Von Frettchen. He at least was a closet romantic looking for a cause; and some people are racist for good reason. But wholesale idea changing is a little difficult."

"Yes I considered mass confundment" said Seagh "But it's better if they can change their ideas for themselves. Lucius would never have forgiven being confunded."

"Quite" said Severus. "Well I leave it in your capable hands my dear boy."

oOoOo

The school as a whole would take relatively little interest in politics; but Severus passed on the news to both Veta, who had fled the Ukrainian Odessa when they killed her parents; and Zhenga, who, as an Ukrainian part goblin, had some interest in the matter.

Veta was still feeling vindictive enough to hope that Seagh killed them all; Zhenga hoped that Seagh really DID know what he was doing and could teach them not to hate. And would kill them if he could not teach them. She thought Seagh was probably not too soft hearted to deal with them permanently if his pets refused to perform – she could not help thinking that the fey in him would be thinking that way – and would do what he had to do to make it safer for ordinary folk.

oOoOo

Seagh stayed long enough to catch up with whatever music Silvina was producing at the moment and listened to her play and read through the music for her flying horses symphony.

"That's pretty damn good our kid" he said softly. "It jars a bit just here" he pointed to a phrase.

"I know; I'm trying to sort it out but I wanted it written down for the idea. The ruddy horse farted when I was in the middle of an idea and it put me off."

Seagh gave a shout of laughter and subsided as she poked him.

"I know; a bit rotten of me" he said "It was the way you put it though that was so funny. Have you tried getting someone to legilimens you for the lost tune? However transient the idea was, the idea should be there!"

"Seagh you GENIUS!" said Silvina "Can you extract it for me?"

Seagh peered into her eyes; and Silvina felt him find the moment and pull up the thought, suppressing the unwanted accompaniment from the equine wind instrument.

She fell to scribbling and Seagh propped himself up against the wall, watching her fondly.

"That's more like it" he said, reading over her shoulder as she quickly crafted other voices to add counterpoint.

"You've always been here for me Seagh; it's the only thing I regret about being your sister now" said Silvina.

"Eh?" said Seagh.

"I can't hope to be your girl" said Silvina.

Seagh blinked and stared at her in sudden revelation.

"Be damned you can't!" he said "You're my adoptive sister – NOT any relation in blood! If it isn't legal I'll damn well get Lucius to draft us an exception!" and then he jerked her into his arms and was kissing her thoroughly.

Silvina clung to him happily.

"Seagh…. Oh Seagh!" she said. "I – I never knew you cared like that!"

"Nor did I" said Seagh, frankly. "I've been looking for a girl who was special; met several who were close; and all the time my dear, you were right here and I wasn't looking for my adoptive sister. I reckon I've known you were special since you took the cruciatus curse just to write a magic tune to counter it; I am an idiot!"

"No you're not; you're wonderful!" said Silvina.

Seagh chuckled wickedly.

"There's a few Odessa types in the Ukraine who'd disagree" he said, and told her about it.

"Why don't you have some music in the background, just below audibility, that's a persuasive tune while you talk at them?" suggested Silvina "It may not be strictly fair; but if the alternative is having to kill them, it's better surely to give them a chance to be neutralised some other way?"

"It is; and now it's your turn to be a genius" said Seagh; and kissed her again. Silvina made happy noises and pressed against him, reaching round his back to run her hands down him.

"And it's as well I have a job that takes me away" said Seagh, firmly removing her hands and capturing them in his "You have your OWLs this year; and then NEWTs. No point getting carried away to quickly."

"You're so beautiful I can't help getting carried away" said Silvina. "I know I'm a bit plain so it's easier for you…"

"Oy!" said Seagh "You are my sweet and beautiful Silvina; only I'm older than you and ought to have learned a bit more self control by now. Or in the case of Jerkitoff, ELF control" he kissed each of her fingers in turn. "We're one, my dear; we work well together and at the risk of saying something horribly trite, we really DO make beautiful music together. Now we have work to do; to put together a magical tune so subtle and so fiendishly powerful that my work gets to be easier; because there are tunes of mind weakening but it must be more than that; yet less than the leading tunes of the likes of the Veeli, the Duende or the tune of the Pied Piper. They're all brute force; and whilst an echo of the persuasion remains when the music is gone, after a while you recognise the essential trickery of them. We need something based on them that but enhances an argument."

Silvina turned from him and rifled through her notes; and started scribbling. Seagh took the pen and added a complex little counterpoint; and they sat together working on it, and occasionally kissing, all evening. Which meant that Silvina was entirely out of bounds in the music room when Severus came to see why there were lights.

"It's marauder business not homework" said Silvina guiltily

"Not that I ever was a marauder" said Seagh "It's to help with my Ukrainean Ironwillies."

"You have the most low mind in your misnomers" said Severus, laughing. "Did I pick up a burst of something unsiblingish between you?"

"Yes dad" said Seagh "I've been blind, deaf, daft and gormless; Silvina is my girl. Can you swing it past the council officially?"

"Probably" said Severus "We have a couple of years anyway before you can get wed; time enough to get something sorted out."

"See?" said Seagh to Silvina "Leave it to dad; he's the works."

Silvina snuggled at him; dad was brilliant but Seagh was, in her mind, the one who was the works!


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Silvina felt a little stale, flat and unprofitable after Seagh left; but comforted herself that unlike Hamlet she was NOT going to bellyache about it for long and silly soliloquies. She got back to work because writing music made her think of Seagh and that made her feel nice all over.

True, the symphony was briefly abandoned for a tone poem of sheer joy of being loved; but once that was out of her system, Silvina settled back solidly to work. Her new dad had taught her that hard work always pays off; and it was true.

oOoOo

The Bee Marauders had worked very hard this term so far and though it was time to make their marauding known by pulling a jape of some description. Besides something had to be done to rival the Ubiquitous marauders and their singing toilets.

The Bee Marauders had a full and all round range of skills; but tended to fall back on potioneering and chanting solutions when in doubt as being the easiest way to do things; a sure sign that all of them were at least competent potioneers, even if only Hette could truly be described as brilliant. As it happened all managed to scrape into an 'O' average in class just for putting in the time on their potioneering; which had delighted Severus when they came to him as fourth years, those of them that were, even though it did not take much to figure out that potioneering was, like library work, considered to be largely for japes. All of the fourth were quite good at potioneering as it happened; so Severus was not about to knock it!

"Our best one to date" said BaHH "was the Purple Poison Potion Jape that turned everyone's hair purple and stood it on end."

"Yes but we're a whole year more sophisticated since then" said Yrdl "And that ought to be reflected in our japes. We're WAY beyond the skiving snacks of the Weasley twins when they were at school. I think we ought to do something slightly different; switching spells to get everyone to drink it is repeating. And it's an unwritten rule that you NEVER repeat."

"We could put a potion that's a lotion in the water tanks that turns everyone's hands into something harmless but weird" suggested Batty.

"Yeah… nice idea; only we mustn't contaminate drinking water or let it come out where Sev's children are in case it frightens them" said Yrdl.

"Can we – I mean, is it possible – to open some wizarding space in the pipework so it only goes to the main cloakroom when people wash hands after the loo when they've been outside?" asked Johanna.

"Now THAT's sophisticated!" approved BaHH.

"Interesting level of ritual" said Crow "Vava, reckon you can cook us up a chant to make it easier?"

"Reckon I might" said Vava. "What potion are we going to use?"

"A hair growing one" giggled Hette "So they wash their hands and then start looking like they're turning into werewolves; which isn't actually as scary these days as it used to be."

"Brilliant" said Yrdl "And the water fountain is on a separate water pipe too; because I looked into having it rise up when used to squirt people in the eye, only it seemed a trifle OTT. We need to know what ingredients to get; and see who we can con into going to get them for us."

"Dad, obviously!" said Hette. "What's the point of having parents close by if one doesn't use them to prevent one having to break bounds? We'll apply to visit the old folk tomorrow and give him the list and then YOU can visit him on the next weekend; and by Sunday afternoon it'll be sorted. We can do the ritual to open a wizarding space tank during the meanwhilst; when we've figured out how to get amongst the plumbing."

So while Hette and Vava visited their parents in the village, the rest of the Bee Marauders looked for access panels and scrambled amongst pipes, tracing back the ones they wanted ready to add an extra and entirely magical tank; and being thorough, they also turned off the water to those particular sinks while they transfigured the top of the section they had chosen into a screw cap they could remove at will.

The amount of wizarding space they needed to open was only small; the size of a large cauldron and they decided to make it one foot, by two feet, by three feet in order to utilise three factorial; none of them were poor at Arithmancy, but as an 'E' average student, Johanna was their relative star and they wanted to make it as easy as possible.

Consequently Vava, who could average 'E' at Arithmancy by sheer hard work, made a chant of three lines each of six syllables. They took off the lid of their section of pipe, squeezed uncomfortably into the crawl space and proceeded to chant, startling Solange Lebaton of the second into thinking there were ghosts in the pipework as their voices echoed hollowly through the tap when she turned it on to wash her hands.

Solange went to complain to her class that Zalmoxes was singing bad opera in the pipes.

oOoOo

Then that was prepared; all they had to do was to retrieve the ingredients, make a surreptitious brew and pour it in.

They received several tickings off for inattention in class and both fourth and third lost a few year points; and Eve Cherrytree moaned that they were hatching something with so much giggle and silliness.

"Wrong my child; it already hatched" said Yrdl "It was a boy and three wise men are already on their way with gifts."

"I don't understand half of what you're on about most of the time, any of you wretched Marauders" grumbled Eve.

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis then folly to be wise" said BaHH.

"Ai gloess omoemoch, ai de fraiu auoemotos" *said Crow.

"What does THAT mean?" said Eve crossly.

"It means Eve never took Ancient Runes very far" said Crow.

"It's a quote from Euripedes; 'twas but my tongue that swore and not my soul' if you really care" said Yrdl. "It's a way around being rude without being rude; because Crow thinks you silly."

"It's more subtle then '_non amo te Sabidi'_ which small Latin even a prune like Cherrytree ought to manage" said Crow.

Eve flounced off; even when they were in the wrong and up to mischief these marauders made her feel flustered!

oOoOo

The following weekend saw surreptitious brewing and the lotion was poured into the spurious water tank; and as BaHH splashed some on his hands and face and it was a little concentrated they had to shave him quickly before he tripped over his extra hair; and then hide him until others had the same effect since the hair grew almost as fast as they shaved it.

"It should be a lot less profound when mixed with water" said Hette "About three inches growth and I say, Yrdl you're going to have to shave him AGAIN."

BaHH considered it worth the trouble – especially when the squeals of outrage and horror began from the first visitors to the cloakroom, the first and second quidditch teams.

Naturally the problem of having hairy hands – and in the case of Kate Grant who had splashed her hot face, a hairy face – did not avoid the notice of the Head.

Severus rose at Kaffee und Kuchen.

"Would the authors of the hairy jape care to identify themselves and tell their victims how long they may be expected to be horrendously hirsute?" he asked.

The Bee Marauders rose.

"It should have all fallen out by bedtime" said Hette.

"Excellent; and hopefully you seven will also by bedtime have completed the assignment I am going to set you; to discover the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs for 'old hairy hands' without resort to the spurious logograms in Asterix; and write me ten cartouches repeat of the same" he said. "You have caught prefects; and the dignity of the prefecture is to be upheld."

They beamed at him. Emily, the prefect caught, if not so thoroughly as her sister, had come up laughing when she realised that it was only a jape; she was a good sort. But they accepted punishment for having a jolly good laugh at the hairy ones.

BaHH had plaited the three locks of hair growing from the random splash marks on his face; and Severus eyed him dubiously.

"The concentrate was strongish sir" said BaHH.

The plaits from his hands were wound round his wrists like friendship bracelets.

"Well perhaps it may give you a lesson or two in careful handling of potions; not all of those you handle will be so benign" said Severus.

BaHH grinned unrepentantly.

It had disrupted the whole school quite delightfully!

By bedtime the hair had indeed all fallen out and the Bee Marauders were cheerfully volunteering to help the elves clear up excess hair. And Severus was glad that he had not set that as a part of the imposition; because they were good willing children who helped to sort out the mayhem their mischief might have caused.

oOoOo

"You think you're so clever inconveniencing people and making them hairy" said Eve Cherrytree crossly in the dorm to Batty and Yrdl.

"If you'd been one of the ones inconvenienced you'd have had the right to complain; but you weren't so you haven't" said Yrdl.

"Which does rather make your argument bristle with difficulties" said Batty.

"Hair today, gone tomorrow" said Yrdl.

"She just likes to beard other people with her moaning" giggled Roseli, who particularly disliked Eve for the events of the previous term.

"Was missing being caught a narrow shave?" asked Cecilia.

"You're all horrible!" said Eve "Taking the side of those marauders; they ought to be punished!"

"We were" said Yrdl "We had OUR lines in er, Hairyglyphs."

The others groaned.

"You ought to be punished for having a rotten society that didn't ought to be allowed!" said Eve. "And even though the Headmaster seems to know what you call yourselves he still doesn't ban it!"

"You are a poor prune, aren't you?" said Batty "It's a society to help people who really need it – not drips like you – and to have fun while we prepare to grow up to fight dark wizards. Which is the worst kept secret in the world in all the sects of marauding, whether in Prince Peak, Hogwarts, Durmstrang and the new school Jade Snape's running. Because Professor Snape was one of the original marauders who looked after a werewolf boy before there was even the Wolfbane potion because he's exceedingly ancient; and they started having japes to give the poor kid a chance at a proper childhood. And it was revived by Harry Potter and his friends and it's marauders who've always fought Voldemort and Odessa; and there's never been any Cherrytrees involved in doing anything useful. And it isn't as though any of us have actually targeted you; WHICH we might well have done after your nasty behaviour before Yule; so why don't you just dry up? We have no interest in aiming japes AT you; because it's rude to mock the afflicted."

When she worked this out, Eve flounced off to bed in injured silence; which suited her dorm mates.

"I say, Batty, I never knew that, about the head and his friends helping a werewolf" said Roseli "I can't begin to imagine how awful it would be to be a werewolf at school. No wonder he worked so hard to develop a cure!"

"If that's the purpose of marauders, I guess we're all behind you all the way" said Cecilia.

"Thanks" said Batty.

"And I'm here at school because of the marauder battle against Odessa; a symbol to demonstrate that goblins can learn so those who believed the common lies they were taught were just that – lies" said Yrdl. "I was taken out of a large goblin community in Germany for the purpose."

"And that can't have been easy – to have been the one who was there as a demonstration" said Roseli "I guess being a half goblin with the prejudice some people have is nothing in comparison to the problems a lot of people have. Kudos to you."

Batty did not know – she had not read deeply the history of the Marauders – that Severus was a later addition to the original marauders; but to her it was inconceivable that their kind and wonderful headmaster would NOT have been a part of helping out a werewolf friend.

Two of the three non marauders in Lavender Dormitory went to sleep feeling uplifted to know what marauding was about; and Eve fell asleep with the sulks and consequently awoke with a headache; which was nobody's fault but her own.

oOoOo

The peccadilloes of the Marauders were forgotten in the next bit of excitement; the Broomstick Boys, Crysochorus Bass and Nils Tenor, had finished their American tour; the Tour album – which was called 'Freedom' – had been released; and they blew by Prince Peak to give the kids there a reprise of their tour concert. Severus was inclined to be indulgent; they were virtually old boys after all, and HAD done a lot in the elf freeing business.

"Every one of our new songs deals with freedom or the lack of it in one way or another" Nils explained as he introduced the concert "And some of the numbers actually point out that you can be unfree and not know it; or feel that you are trammelled and not realise how mistaken you are. We hope you enjoy it; it's aimed a bit at the American market so we picked the good old Irish ballad of the last couple of centuries for style because of that being an ancestor of country and western music. And though we have to make a living out of it too, ten per cent of all the profits from sales of our records go to a fund to buy and train towards freedom American elves, most of whom are not even pure blood elves but are part muggle because American wizards used to keep muggles in slavery if they were dark skinned. It's not a pretty time and they try to forget it; but it's kind of hard for any visitor not to be reminded of it when a brown skinned half elf is busy acting subservient to you wherever you turn. When muggles abolished black slavery among their numbers, slave owning wizards promptly made sure all their muggle slaves had elf babies who could be hidden by disillusionment magic. We got quite upset by it all" he added.

"I'd like to share that my ancestors were slaves to muggles once" said Darryl, rising "Several hundred years ago; and I for one am behind any attempt to free these American slaves who have a VERY dodgy legal existence as such even without abhorring slavery in general."

"Thanks Darryl" said Nils. "We acquired and gave clothes to one kid; she's just a quarter elf; and some of her heritance is from wizards misbehaving with their slaves. She also has a golden voice; and when we've brought her up to speed she'll be joining your fourth next year. She's just thirteen; and we managed to trick her master into wagering her before he took her to bed, which he was planning on doing. She's his half sister, but as she's only a slave he didn't care. Rant over; starting concert now, with the song we wrote in anger over finding out such things. We had to be a little careful though so the meaning is hidden" he added. "It's called 'Does one drop suffice'."

The introduction was wild and in a minor key; and the tune wailed but as much in impotent rage as in misery; and the school shivered as the boys sang,

"_Who am I?_

_What am I?_

_Why am I a slave?_

_What pact made me?_

_What law bound me? _

_What may yet me save?_

_How much then_

_Defines me then?_

_Does one drop suffice?_

_Are my futures_

_Doomed forever?_

_Who will pay the price?"_

The song finished on a rising note; and Nils used every ounce of training Severus had given him to hold that long last note until all the hall full of children were gasping in wonder and in sympathy for his lungs and busy breathing to check that they at least still could.

"He picked up THAT trick by listening to my Uriah Heep" murmured Krait to Dione.

"It has everyone's attention though; which is the idea" said Dione.

Nils finished, still under perfect control and the song crashed to an end.

The applause was tremendous.

"Thank you very much" said Crys "The next number is called 'Dullsville'; it's a common enough theme but with our own inimitable style, which includes our usual modesty."

There was laughter. This was one of those tunes that owed much to the Irish heritance; and more than a nod to 'Blue hills of Breffni'; but as Crys said, with their own twist. They sang,

"_**I grew up in Dullsville and when I was a boy**_

_**I promised that I'd leave it when I was adult, to enjoy**_

_**Magic and excitement in a large community**_

_**Where folk outnumbered livestock when I would then be free.**_

_So why am I going back to Dullsville_

_Back to that one broomstick town?_

_Back to that pumpkin patch of yokels_

_I never thought I'd want to settle down_

_**I got to the city, I was looking for some cheer**_

_**For girls with pretty ankles and robes made just this year**_

_**I found all the excitement, she cost me all my pay**_

_**She confused me and befuddled me and stole my clothes away.**_

_So why am I going back to Dullsville_

_Back to that one broomstick town?_

_Back to that pumpkin patch of yokels_

_I never thought I'd want to settle down_

_**I found all the games and I laid my money down **_

_**But the mobsters saw me coming when I rolled into town**_

_**So though I won the betting the gold that I was paid**_

_**Was made by ruddy leprechauns and none of it has stayed.**_

_So why am I going back to Dullsville_

_Back to that one broomstick town?_

_Back to that pumpkin patch of yokels_

_I never thought I'd want to settle down"_

Naturally the boys also sang 'Turning' which was the title that they had fixed upon for their elf-freeing ritual; and asked Severus to play the bodhran for it. Severus was happy to oblige, and on that bodhran too; and a selection of chanting-oriented blooded chanted the chant as the background for it. The Broomstick boys had taught it to a selection of eager fans who had won the privilege of performing with them in each live performance; permitting them the words to read too. They had taken the ritual bodhran with them and Crys had played it while Nils sang the verses, joining in with the chorus; as did a substantial number of the school who had heard the pre-release version on Wizarding Wireless .

"_Time is turning, a long time turning_

_Freedom for my thoughts in my heart I'm yearning_

_Freedom to think the thoughts that are burning_

_Let my heart be free!"_

Few enough of them knew what the song was about; but it was catchy and they knew it; and that was enough.

There were other songs; a funny one about a quidditch fanatic who was so enslaved by his own passion he became ill if he missed a match of his local team; a serious one about poverty; and one based a muggle folk song called 'House of the Rising Sun' because it was as relevant in the wizarding community. They had changed the words slightly to be singing about a sister who was held down by being a scarlet woman – the inference was plain enough though there was never any outright use of contentious words any more than in the original – combined with a sinful brother who was a Felix Fiend rather than a husband who was a gambler of the original.

"_There is a house in New Orleans _

_They call the Rising Sun_

_It's been the ruin of many a poor girl_

_My sister's only one._

_Her mother, she's a seamstress_

_With one of these sewing machines_

_Her brother, he's a Felix Fiend_

_Down in New Orleans._

_Oh tell our little sister_

_Not to do the things we done_

_And spend her life in sin and misery _

_In the House of the Rising Sun._

_She's one hand in her pocket_

_The other on the portkey_

_She's going back to New Orleans_

_To pay those debts for me"_

They finished up with the 'cauldron monster song', Prince Peak version, and 'Cauldron Master' just for fun; and the children brought the roof down.

"Those boys are good now" said Krait to Severus "That first one had hardly a dry eye in the house; not just the words but the way they sing it."

"They are rather a credit to the school" said Severus.

The Broomstick Boys stayed to tea and Nils asked,

"What did you think?"

"Sublime" said Severus.

There was a shocked silence.

"I say, Sev mate, did we actually rate an unmitigated compliment limited to one word?" said Nils, awed.

Severus grinned.

"BLOODY sublime?" he said. "You rate every compliment in the book; and when the Americans actually work out what you're getting at you might get the odd ritual sending; which in its way, albeit irritating, is about as big a compliment as any writer of protest songs can get. Oh wait; I forget. Americans. They probably don't even know how to DO ritual sendings."

"Be fair dear" said Krait "VOLDEMORT didn't know how to do ritual sendings; it's only because we've been poking around in a mix of fey magic and untranslated Bactrian texts."

"You have a point" said Severus.

"All right Sev; I'll bite; what ARE ritual sendings?" asked Nils.

"When you use ritual to send a spell effect across any distance to the target by using a piece of ritual material obtained from him" said Severus "It's fairly dangerous to the caster too; leaves him fairly open to his target and is massively draining. It's another of those lost arts and apart from writing it up for my own satisfaction I don't think it's going to be one I'm going to revive."

"Could it be used on those of elf blood as a freeing spell not a damaging spell?" asked Chrys.

Severus stared.

"You know, I LIKE these boys" he said "And I think it's actually about time to invite them into the core of the group."

"You mean like in your book?" asked Nils, awed.

"Exactly so" said Severus "You boys are exceptional; you have found your focus, found a goal; and you go for it without fear. Even though you concealed the meaning of your lyrics that was only to make sure that they got heard, became popular before anyone unravelled them; not to stop those damned Yankees attacking you. And I'd like to see you with a bit more protection and backing too."

"We would be more honoured than we can say" said Chrys.

"Good; don't say anything then" said Severus "I hate speechifying."

"He said he's got a bit emotional and choked up and he doesn't want anyone to see beneath the snippy" said Krait.

"I thought you'd grown out of translating what you think I mean?" growled Severus.

Krait kissed him; it seemed about the best answer to give.

oOoOo

Crys and Nils stayed for a blooding; and got to be taken to the marauding room for it with an inordinate – or so it seemed – number of children and a larger number of the staff than they might have guessed.

And when they has slit their palms and joined blood they knew why the chanting group had managed that impossible chant; because they had the support of more than two hundred brothers and sisters all over Europe; and they were one of an enormous whole and yet as individual as they had ever been. And they were now Parselmouths!

"Just don't go writing songs in Parseltongue!" laughed Julian Finch "Because it won't carry a message to anyone except the few Parselmouths outside the Blood Group and with us you're preaching to the converted! All it will do I'm afraid is to freak out the parents of your fans."

"Unfortunately true" said Severus dryly "There is a general belief even nowadays after Harry demonstrated that he was a Parselmouth, that all such are dark wizards. Which since the greatest concentration of us in the world dedicate our lives to fighting dark wizardry is a trifle unfair. The snake is not a popular animal; it is cold blooded and implacable and some of them can inject poison with a bite. That the same might be said for most first years is irrelevant."

"SIR!" chorused the Ubiquitous Marauders.

"_The snake he is unpopular, I really wonder why_

_he is a cool and cleanly beast, his scales are smooth and dry_" murmured Nils "There's almost a song in there."

Severus laughed.

"I'm sure we'll hear it on Wizarding Wireless soon" he said. "You should find the Gaelic easier to find; and even the language of the Fey that is akin to it; German and a selection of languages from Durmstrang; and the language – deep down and NOT for casual use – of tigers. We have Rakshasa among our numbers."

"Cool!" said Crys "An album called 'Animals' and we do songs about tigers and snakes and wolves! Anything else?"

"Dog" said Severus "We've a couple of dog animagi, a cat, a green falcon – don't ask – an ordinary falcon, a lynx, and an eagle owl. And for reasons that I will tell you tomorrow when you've slept it off, stags are also appropriate. And if you can do one about a magnificent stag I'd take it as a favour to Harry. Now however, the lot of you – adults and all – off to bed and sleep it off."

"Don't forget to clean your teeth" said Hermione.

"Madam Granger, I shouldn't dare FORGET" grinned Nils "But I might just dare defy you and choose not to!"

"Nils, you're a bad influence on the younger ones!" said Hermione.

"Rock stars are supposed to be" said Nils; and on that note departed leaving Hermione – for once – lost for words.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The Broomstick Boys got told the full story of the beginning of the marauders; and about the fates of its original members.

"There's a rock opera in there" said Nils.

"And I'll ask you not to let the idea come to fruit" said Severus "Not for my sake though I would find my repellent younger self a trifle embarrassing; but for a number of other people. Harry knows that his father was not always the nicest; he's come to terms with it as James has admitted he was a little thoughtless; but it's still not that nice. Padfoot has children; do they want to grow up with their dad as only an equivocal hero, coming good in the end, but still with some murky moments? And most important, Peter Pettigrew is a damaged beastie, and I implore you not to hurt the poor little sod any more when he's settled down to gentle obscurity as a pensioner of Hogwarts school, having come to terms with having been raped by a female rat while he hid in that form to the result that he has a daughter who's a manimagus. Peter has had enough to cope with."

"You're right; sorry" said Nils. "We might be inspired by the themes though; then if there are references only those in the know understand it will be our private blood-joke."

Severus nodded.

"That's acceptable enough" he said.

The boys were still bubbling over from belonging to the blood group with all the enthusiasm of small boys; and Severus hoped they would always retain that zest for life. He, after all, had needed to learn it, initially from Krait; and then from his children, adopted and natural. And having the stern visage on the outside that was necessary to a headmaster put a curb on too much boyishness.

He kept that for weekends with Lucius and do-you-remember sessions with the original few members of the group.

oOoOo

Eve Cherrytree meanwhile recalled that she owed the marauders an ill favour; mostly for existing. And there were Marauders in the first year who could be used to get at their older counterparts if they were only made as miserable as such horrid brats deserved to be. And one of them was even the half-breed's brother; that would teach Roseli Accola to go sneaking round Blaise Paddock so he took her to the ball!

It took Eve a little while to come up with a plan to hurt the Ubiquitous Marauders without immediately having the Bee Marauders on her back; and the idea she had was, she felt sure, brilliant in its subtlety and cleverness.

She got her pen and paper and started writing.

When each of the marauders got a letter next morning and opened it and made expressions of shock and distaste, Eve smiled to herself.

The six youngsters exchanged glances; and Zhenga rose.

"Excuse me sir; but am I correct in thinking that poison pen letters are considered rather more than common if unpleasant japes and the reporting of them is no sneaking – even f we knew the author which we do not?"

"The writing of poison pen letters is a criminal offence" said Severus "And as each of you seem to have received letters by owls I recognise as school owls that rather suggests that the culprit is amongst us. I strongly suggest that whoever has done this comes to my office by Kaffee und Kuchen in order to confess and to make explanation as to why they feel a criminal action to be reasonable. You six are excused your first lesson; we'll go over the letters in my office."

"Oh that's all right sir; it's only prep" said Fyra "We shan't miss anything; only please may we have a dispensation because we've not all finished using 'Transfigurations today' because it had an article relevant to our prep and we were taking turns."

"I'm sure Madam Malfoy will be lenient if you're being industrious enough to quote from learned magazines not merely your textbooks" said Severus.

"Commendable industry" said Krait "I know the article you mean; I'll extend the deadline until tomorrow after school; will that suffice?"

"Yes thank you Madam Malfoy" said Fyra.

oOoOo

The children convened in Severus' office.

"All right; let me see them" he said.

A quick glance was enough to show him that these letters were more than any childish prank but designed to bring distress; and his eyebrows went up.

"Well!" he said "Nastier than I was expecting from the level of enemy I might have expected any one of you to have collected so far."

"Please, Severus, I don't think any of us has MADE any enemies" said Wilhelm "We sort of antagonised Jöran at first, well antagonised him back because he was a prune; but we get on fine well with him now. And the second are quite convivial and we haven't even had any tensions in the common room let alone quarrels; and nobody higher up the school would want to do this, would they? It's sort of below the dignity of anyone with pretensions to civilisation. Besides the only person I think we might have pissed off is Antti, and if the fourth thought they ought to do us over on his behalf they'd just duff us up a little bit I think, and he isn't clever enough to spell all those words."

Severus sighed.

"I should congratulate you on your grasp of colloquial English, Wilhelm, were I not disappointed to hear that your colloquial acquisitions tend to the less savoury like 'to piss off' and 'to do over' and 'to duff up'.

Wilhelm grinned.

"I assure you I have shared the German equivalents with my non German comrades!" he said.

"That's what I was afraid of" said Severus. "These letters are too…..one hesitates to use the word sophisticated….. too carefully crafted for me to even consider a first or second year. Siegfried might be capable of such periods of casuistry; but Siegfried is your blood brother and would not consider doing something that would cause such hurt as we all felt from you. You will have noticed however that the writer is full of conjecture not fact; and the crude innuendoes ridiculous to anyone who knows your background. Especially the laughable one to Zhenga saying that your father is not your real father and that you were sired by a goblin; which of course is true but obviously the perpetrator is convinced that you think of Ihor Rebet as your real father – as is only right and proper since he has BEEN a proper father to you – and seeks to make you question your origins. The nasty comment that your hair indicates that you'll be a scarlet woman like your mother is more offensive. Fyra, a nasty suggestion that you are so good at Arithmancy because you're planning on being a thief like your people and will need the geomancy you're so proud of to escape from gaol. What the writer means by 'your people' I'm not quite sure; she has got the idea perhaps you have a thief in the family? It's usually a female who writes these things" he added.

"Sir, she means goblins" said Fyra "A lot of people – in Germany anyway – equate goblins with thieving."

"Dear me" said Severus "And I thought all our German children were very nice; this is disturbing."

"Because it hasn't happened before and we have a new German girl higher up the school?" asked Sirri, who was with them.

"It can't but cross the mind" said Severus.

"Oh SIR! If you mean Frieda it needn't cross your mind because she hasn't got enough crossing hers to write this stuff!" said Bruno.

"True enough" said Severus "Poor girl! Let's see what has been written about you; VERY poisonous. 'you think you can mingle with nice people but everyone knows you have those filthy habits just hidden out of sight ready to steal and make people think you're decent when you're just dirty'. Not very specific but it drips with vitriol. What have we on Wilhelm? Dear me! Not a lover of Germans any more than of goblins since apparently you ancient German families of aristocrats have vices and perversions galore and your sins will find you out and you will die screaming of incest. Somehow I don't think our poison pen is addicted to dictionary work" he added as Wilhelm chuckled. "Apparently too she has mistaken you for the ferret – I mean Von Frettchen."

"Eduard doesn't have any unnameable vices and he can't die of incest unless he and his brother do what ladies do with men" said Wilhelm. "If one could die of incest; does she think it's a disease?"

"Apparently" said Severus dryly. "Serrik?"

"Oh mine said that you do that to me and I'm shamed and loathsome" said Serrik. Severus read it, his eyes narrowed.

"Well she's heard about that" he said "Still a little hazy and vague but it's a practice she has heard of. Alrik, what has this silly and nasty creature written to you?"

"That I'm filth and the child of filthy German criminals who are being arrested at this moment" said Alrik "Which would have worried me no end if my family wasn't in the capable care of Jade who's just not going to let it happen."

"You're all good sensible children to take it so well; and sensible too to bring it to me straight away instead of burning the letters as the rubbish they obviously are" said Severus. "Such things are written usually by very disturbed young girls or particularly spiteful and vindictive ones; and if there is nothing you can think of that might make someone feel vindictive, then I lean to the first view. We'll give her the chance to own up; and then I shall, if I do not get a confession, use these letters for a ritual of finding, a simple matter. I want you to leave it in my hands; but in the meantime, the INSTANT you get any other such letter or have a mean prank played on you, come to me. I take this very seriously."

The children curtseyed and bowed; and Zhenga hugged him.

"It's nice that you don't let anyone say 'no smoke without fire' that used to be said about nasty rumours where ma and me lived" she said.

"I have taught potions for far too many years to fail to realise that some of our dimmer brethren can produce choking smoke without fire; equally fire without smoke; and sundry explosions in between" said Severus. "You have ten minutes prep left unless anyone needs extra reassurance; time for one person to make their references."

They hurried to the prep room to get on with it; there was nothing to worry about. Professor Snape had it in hand.

oOoOo

Kaffee und Kuchen came; and was over; and Severus had received no visitor.

He summoned his staff; and proceeded to fold the letters as paper birds, enchanting them to seek the writer; and attached a string to each and gave each string to a staff member that was NOT a relative of his. This was Byron Beckard, Freya Tuthill, Carmenta Gimlet, Hermione Granger-Weasley and Valerie Burdock.

He took one string himself.

The birds flew directly to the middle school common room; and fluttered up to Eve Cherrytree.

She backed away; and the birds lovingly followed.

"Miss Cherrytree" said Severus grimly "My office now."

"Crumbs, sir, did CHERRYTREE write poison pen letters?" said Roseli "I know she's mean enough to shrink people's clothes at them but that's really dirty!"

Eve rounded on her.

"Don't you call me dirty! You, you're nothing but a filthy little half breed whose parents are perverts fumbling around with other races; and you stole Blaise from me and made him think that snogging a half breed would be exciting and fun because it's perverse!"

"In your dreams!" said Blaise scornfully putting an arm around Roseli who had jerked back as though slapped from such venom "I was NEVER yours for anyone to steal; and I'm too young to snog girls anyway, I'm a virgin and I guess that makes you….. shutting up sir" he said as Severus cleared his throat.

"Miss Cherrytree; I see this is STILL about your oversexed attentions towards Mr Paddock" said Severus. "Now go to my office as I told you; if you have opened yourself to ridicule by your unpleasant outburst it is, I fear, your own fault. You should have obeyed me directly. WHY are you still here?"

Eve stumbled out; and Severus followed, signing to Freya and Hermione to come.

oOoOo

In his office Severus faced Eve.

"Generally" he said "Poison pen writers are found either to be young girls or middle aged women of remarkable spite; or to be making a plea for help through describing acts they have suffered. You made a big deal about the supposed sodomy of Serrik; if any cruel person has perpetrated so wicked an act on you then you have every excuse for being a little disturbed; and I WILL see to such a person being punished. You stare at me with incomprehension. Where then did you hear about this act?"

"Daddy said some goblin boys sell themselves like scarlet women because being small the men who hire them think they're like younger children and he called it sodomy and said it was disgusting; so it must be. And goblins are pretty disgusting so it must be true" said Eve.

"Eve!" said Severus sternly "Have you been at school here for three and a half years and learned NOTHING? Have you not seen that the goblins in your class are children the same as the humans, and in no wise different save in looks? Have I failed you so miserably that you can make such remarks, in the light of all you should know about this school's anti-racist policies, and sound like you believe them?"

"YOU haven't failed her, Headmaster" said Freya "Sounds like her parents have; a pretty father it is who talks about rent boys in front of his teenage daughter! And what's more leave her with a strange, half-formed and not very accurate idea of what's involved by the sound of it. This has all come to a head because of the ruddy Yule Ball and Miss Bloodsnob here not able to cope with Blaise picking on personality not blood status."

"Blunt, but I'm afraid you are correct" sighed Severus.

"I couldn't have put it in a more straightforward way myself" said Hermione with a perfectly straight face. A few years of teaching HAD given her a degree of reticence.

"Your resentment over Roseli aside – and that was the most low and vulgar speech I have ever heard in my life that you made to her – what made you attack a bunch of harmless first years?" demanded Severus.

"Because they're marauders like those stupid marauders that stick up for goblins and half breeds and pretend that they don't mind them and this lot are almost all unnatural half breeds or gobbo animals and a boy of pure blood must be some sort of pervert to want to be with them and if I could hurt them it'd hurt the other marauders and now you've SPOILT it because the marauders in my year will stop me sending more letters to the little filth!" said Eve.

"Eve" said Severus "The marauders in your year will have no say in what happens to you because you will be returning home; I can't keep a girl as spiteful and nasty as you. But listen to me very carefully. If you sit at home and send such letters to any of the children in this school I WILL call in the Aurors office; and then, I'm afraid, you WILL be going to prison. I could make this a legal matter right now; but I prefer to hope that the shock of realising that you have committed a criminal offence will make you think, and change your ways. It will however go on your school record; in case you decide to try a poison pen approach to anyone else. The evidence will be there as a previous use of the method. I strongly advise that you do NOT call Lucius Malfoy a pervert for having a goblin wife; nor his stepson for having a human fiancée. The Malfoys are extraordinarily litigious; and your father will probably be bankrupted paying your damages in addition to any legal penalties you incur. Drat the child she doesn't understand even yet!" he said.

Hermione raised Eve's chin to make her look at her.

"Listen Miss Cherrytree; you could be locked away for what you have done. Go to gaol. Be a gaolbird. Bring shame on your family because you are a criminal. You ARE a criminal. Am I getting through to you? This is NOT a jape; this is NOT a prank; this is NOT in the same order as setting the staff loos to explode with sounds of Handel's firework music and coloured stars; THIS IS SERIOUS: ARE YOU HEARING ME?"

Eve stared in shock; at last it was going in.

"Y-Yes Madam Granger" she said in a small frightened voice.

"What views you hold are your own; it is only a criminal offence to air them in a way that might cause an affray; and generally, schoolkids are more or less exempt from that, though we the staff tend to punish loudly held views that are unacceptable in civilised society" said Hermione "Like your expressed opinion on goblins, half breeds, and their parents which is just SO middle class and bourgeois. The crime was anonymous letter writing of filth. The headmaster, in his infinite mercy, is going to let you off with expulsion; and not press charges. Naturally he has no control over whether any of the parents of the children might decide to sue you. Which those of more limited means might get together to do as a class action" she added as Eve's eyes sparked with malicious triumph "Especially if Professor Rebet, Zhenga's stepfather – far off the mark you were there, you wicked girl – and Duke Eduard Von Frettchen, Wilhelm's brother-in-law decide to get involved. Heh, you took notice of that; Wilhelm's sister is a duchess. Serrik is her ward. Bruno's parents have well paid jobs; and Neric and Torik both work for Professor Snape's daughter Jade. That's the fathers of Fyra and Alrik if you haven't yet worked out goblin nomenclature. And Jade would doubtless lend them what they needed to sue you. You COULD be facing six separate law suits with damages claimed. NOW have I got your attention? I strongly suggest that you write letters of apology to each of them – signed this time – and to Roseli Accola for your obnoxious outburst; and then the Head will see about pacifying the outraged parents because he can say you have seen the error of your ways."

"And then I needn't be expelled?" said Eve.

"Yes you damn well will be expelled you obnoxious brat!" said Severus "But if you write the apologies I will persuade the parents NOT to sue you. The stuff you wrote about Wilhelm and Serrik is worth damages of around five thousand galleons each at least; and Eduard Von Frettchen would spend twice that to be sure he got it. He can be a vindictive man in defence of his family; he's like Lucius in that. And as my daughter has sponsored Fyra and Alrik, DO remember that she's also Lucius' niece. Hermione, get it out of my sight and take it to the sanatorium; and let it have writing materials. If it manages to write adequate apologies I'll keep Von Frettchen off."

"You can't call me it, I'm HUMAN!" wailed Eve.

"No Miss Cherrytree; in my book a racist is subhuman" said Severus "An it. Get out of my sight."

Eve burst into tears; and Hermione frogmarched her away unmoved. This had been festering for a while; and now the pustule had burst they might be rid of the poison.

It was simple for Hermione; but Severus buried his head in his hands.

"Sev, she wasn't one of your exam entrance students, was she?" said Freya "She's an also ran from the Cackle families."

"That's as maybe Freya; but I hate to expel any child" said Severus "But I must make a stand over such serious issues."

"The point I was trying to make, and failed to be sufficiently pedantic about it is that she comes from a family with built in bourgeois – lovely word, how like Hermione to think of it – casual racism; and that flares up when she perceives a slight from someone of a race she'd otherwise only faintly despise."

"But what has it to do with the marauders?" said Severus.

Freya shrugged.

"Because with the resentment towards Roseli she picks fault with others; the marauders – I have no doubt – gave her a good put down; perhaps one of them needles her about having caused trouble herself this year; and she remembers that Roseli has a brother in the first year marauders; I don't think she's got reasoning in there, only a load of spite and the desire for a scapegoat or several who she thinks – by reason of age – can't fight back."

"I won't say that you're wrong" said Severus.

oOoOo

"When did the staff loos explode with coloured stars and Handel's firework music? I don't recall the incident" Severus said to Hermione when she returned.

"They haven't to my knowledge; I made it up on the spur of the moment as the sort of jape most marauders would consider luridly daring" said Hermione.

Severus managed a smile.

"My dear, you HAVEN'T got too pompous to be a marauder to think of things like that; I AM glad. Let's do it to the school loos at the end of the summer term."

"Severus what ARE you like?"

"In need of light relief" said Severus dryly.

oOoOo

Eve's parents came and collected her – after she had written some rather ungracious apologies – and her father tried to bribe Severus to keep her and forget the whole incident as nobody had been hurt, at least nobody who counted.

Severus cold cocked him.

When the man came to, Severus informed him in biting terms that apart from the fact that ALL his pupils counted for him, he had persuaded the girl to do SOME damage limitations to avoid law suits from the parents and relatives of the children whose characters and names their dirty little daughter had defamed and the Duke von Frettchen and Baroness Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens were not going to take any school apology seriously if the source of the filth was still at the school contaminating their kindred and protégés.

"And if by not counting, you mean as your daughter meant those who are goblin and part goblin well I am glad to have away from my school a nasty mouthed little girl who expresses such opinions about my grandchildren!" said Severus "As my son Romulus is married to Senagra gan Konal; oh maybe in your mind she's not really a goblin because her father is part of the English aristocracy being a council member; and I have too goblin and half goblin adopted children. The likes of you and your values make me sick; I didn't fight Voldemort and kill Deatheaters and Odessa agents to listen to crap from a nice little deatheater like you; perhaps I ought to treat you like the rest of the scum I've been killing since the rise of Voldemort! Get out and take your loathsome offspring with you; and be warned that I shall warn other schools about her. She might find some like minded types in Durmstrang; you could always apply. Hellibore won't take her; I already wrote to warn him that she's a disruptive influence besides her racist views."

The Cherrytrees withdrew in a sulk.

And Severus was glad to see them go. NO more traditional Cackle brats without passing the entrance exam; and an interview to check their views. If they wanted 'naice' and 'genteel' and 'uncontaminated by original thought' they could go to Hellibore where the situation of dealing with other than humans was unlikely to arise. Unless any Hellibore family married a goblin or elf or adopted; but that was a situation for the future and it was Englebert's headache not his. Perhaps it had been unduly vindictive to let Englebert know that the girl was a troublemaker – and if Roseli had not been a half goblin doubtless Eve would STILL have enacted sly vindictive means against her to get her to give up from dancing with the boy she wanted – but there were enough ties still between the schools that it would be uncomfortable for him and Englebert both if the brat spread spite and poison. He sighed. He had never liked Eve; but she had always seemed mostly harmless. Presumably her racist thoughts had been seething within, forced down to conform and comply to keep her out of trouble, and being thwarted in her desires had just brought the whole lot bubbling to the surface and she lost control of herself completely. Well, better now than when she had a better grasp on sexual matters and could really write believable hurtful things. One might hope that now she had been apprised of the fact that anonymous letters were a criminal matter she might not try the same nasty trick again; but he very much feared that she might. Well, that was no longer his problem. He wondered what option her parents would take; they had sent her to Prince Peak on the grounds that it was a 'naice small school' so unlikely that they would try Hogwarts; besides, David knew Eve and would want to know why she had been withdrawn. And Hogwarts not only had goblins, it had a goblin head boy in Gorbrin. Well there were a number of small schools in England; but most of them only offered three or four OWLs. The girl could probably scrape a pass on DOE as she stood, though she was not up with most of the class; but then most of the class could probably scrape OWL passes. It was the point of small classes and bright pupils; to be sure they all got high grades. He had better write to Madam Maxime; who took half goblins now. Because Beauxbatons was, besides Durmstrang, Eve's only option for a school with better than half a dozen subjects if she wanted to avoid goblins.

Well if the girl DID go to Durmstrang on the grounds that only 'naice' people of pure blood and close were permitted there, the child would find that 'naice' did not equate with nice, as in the meaning pleasant; there were decent kids in Durmstrang but plenty were petulant pets of doting parents and the discipline, including peer level discipline, was harsher than would ever be permitted in an English school. Durmstrang still retained the right to flog; and dormitory discipline to a transgressor of the unwritten code of the children could be draconian. Well it was Eve's problem; and she had to learn about life on her own if she chose to flout civilised behaviour.

oOoOo

Severus put in some library work – it had been a very long time since he had ever even contemplated practical jokes – and proceeded to implement Hermione's suggestion of toilets playing not Handel but the 1812 Overture whilst in use and exploding coloured stars when flushed. It was remarkably childish and he looked forward to seeing some puzzled faces amongst various layers of marauders.

He was not disappointed; each group of Marauders asked each other which had been responsible, all of them finally accusing the Muggle marauders of having burst out in the effort to be staid sixth formers; which of course Fred, Peter, Rory and Randolph denied, puzzled.

Unsurprisingly it was Antti Laakkonen who reported that somebody had bewitched the toilets again.

Severus beamed.

"Yes Mr Laakkonen" said he. "It was Madam Granger's idea and I implemented it. It was time for the staff to have a little gentle revenge on the marauders."

Antti stared; and went away very quietly. It was true what people said; ALL the English were insane!

He did however pass on to the Bee Marauders who passed it around in impromptu emergency marauder meeting.

"I find it hard to cope with the idea of it being Madam GRANGER who had the idea!" said Randolph.

"I guess if the headmaster wanted revenge we may have gone a little too far this year" said Wilhelm "Between us I mean."

"You could be right" said Yrdl. "And mostly it's been us lot. Of course" she added with more truth than she knew "It might be an outbreak of staff mischief in relief at getting rid of Cherrytree."

She was shouted down on this; the staff were not so human, even when they had first names and marshmallow cocoa.

"Should we apologise for overdoing things?" asked Batty.

"No; we should just take it on the chin, lay low and say nuffin'" said BaHH.

"I wish we'd thought of it first though" said AHHa.

"Huh, you're all elderly and fifth form and can't do stuff like that any more" said his brother "You'll have to wait until YOU'RE teaching."

"I never read in any school story about the staff playing pranks on the children" said Sandalla "It's quite improper."

"My dad is NOT improper!" said Silvina "We are English; the English are allowed to be eccentric. And actually I agree with Yrdl; he gets most awfully upset about expulsions; I wouldn't mind betting he picked up something Madam Granger said and just decided to go with it. Just because. And by the way, are you fourth year types going to write to your counterparts in Durmstrang and warn them just in case the silly moo goes there? I know the fourth year blooded don't Maraud but they come close. And if she DOES have real problems perhaps they can sort them out like I was sorted out."

"My dear Silvina, you were a miserable little cow but you lashed out in a loud sort of way and were open about it" said AHHa. "NEVER were you sly. I just think that anyone who can think it's all right to write poison pen letters is the nastiest; and not actually saveable, unless it IS a plea for help. And if it had been a plea for help Severus would have found out because he's the world's best legilimens. She's just nasty; end of story. And yes, you lot ought to write to Wencelada, Axel, Zyrillis and Grishilde. Ask them to keep quiet what she was expelled for in case she HAS turned over a new leaf; but if they can keep an eye on her it might stop her causing serious hurt to someone more vulnerable than our first year chapter."

Crow frowned.

"Is 'Chapter' the right term? Shouldn't that refer to Marauders of different places not different ages?"

"Pedant" complained AHHa. "You're probably right; suggest a collective noun."

"What, outside of Pests?" grinned Crow. "Section; sub-group; branch; I think branch myself because we're sort of many headed and mutable like a tree sprung from one trunk and growing and subdividing forever. Well as close to forever as makes no odds" he added.

"Crumbs, Crow, you ARE waxing lyrical today" said Yrdl "Swallowed a Roget's while you were at it I see."

"I'm not the only person in this room to read dictionaries and thesauruses and atlases for fun" said Crow defensively "You do too Yrdl".

"True" said Yrdl "It's why we went to the ball together and why we'll probably end up getting married."

"Steady on old girl!" said Crow "Marriage is a big step; I'm too young to die!"

Yrdl sent his eyebrows flying round the room in answer to that and a general free-for-all broke out which was enjoyed by all and being marauders they all managed to unjinx themselves happily enough before they had to be anywhere which would involve questions being asked about flying ears and eyebrows, pustules, lurid colours, tentacles, or parts of the body being vegetables.

It WAS good to let off steam.

They went to use the two toilets affected by Severus' jinx, synchronising hearbeats to sit down simultaneously to have the maximum volume from the 1812 overture and a really good light show afterwards.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The run up to Easter saw one more quidditch match against the Pazardzhik Phoenixes from Bulgaria because Viktor's old team were curious to play his protégés. It was a tough match; but too many stars had been lost by the Phoenixes and they had not yet, as Ron put it, risen from the ashes. The school won after a close fought scoring match with the Bulgarians coming out slightly on top; but Arbrek was on form and the snitch went to the school team. It took all day and the score was two hundred and eighty to two hundred and ten; which proved, as the new Phoenix Captain said, that both defences were very good. There was much good natured teasing towards Viktor and his young wife; and Lydia gave as good as she got.

And then the holidays were upon them; which meant revision – carefully regulated –for the fifth and upper sixth; and Severus and family decamped to England because his cousin Albertine Gregg had asked him to give her away for her wedding.

Lilith was to be the bridesmaid and her friend Sextus a page as it was Sextus' father, Ashley Pencastle, to whom Albertine was getting married. And the young supporters were as smug as if they had arranged the whole thing.

Severus managed not to groan as he realised that they probably HAD arranged the whole thing; since they had certainly engineered a meeting between Albertine and Ashley to arrange that they pool resources of Albertine's junk stall and Ashley's curio shop that was not really upmarket enough to be an antique shop.

It was a small family wedding though Lucius had loaned Malfoy Manor and at least one reporter got in to take a photo before being escorted firmly out; Ernestine was there to see her daughter married respectably, something the Madam had never dared hope for; and she wept copiously. The bridesmaid and page behaved impeccably, which was worrying; though without unwanted guests there was no call for them not to. Severus wondered what bribery had got Sextus to be a page in sage green satin and black velvet to match Lilith in sage green satin with black trim; until he heard Sextus holding forth about how his mother had almost prevented him from coming at all. The acceptance of the costume was doubtless his contrary nature asserting itself. It would, besides, with only a little alteration, do for a ball gown for next Yule and Severus turned and raised an eyebrow to Krait who nodded. They needed no words; he and Krait always knew exactly what the other was thinking. It was why Severus always felt a little mean towards his other wives, Sirri and Dione, whom he loved dearly; but who were not his soul mates in the way Krait was. Unlike Lucius who plainly adored all his wives equally.

Well, that was the way it was; and Sirri and Dione were happy with the arrangement and reckoned that to be loved by him was a million times better than to be the only wife of someone they did not love so well; and if they were happy that was good enough. He only hoped that Albertine would be happy; she deserved some happiness in her life. She had never had any magical training, so being married to a muggle mattered less and would cause less tensions than with someone who took magic as a matter of course in all things. They were plainly, too, enough in love to surmount any minor difficulties.

"Am I going to have any siblings?" demanded Sextus.

Albertine blushed.

"We would like children; assuming that doesn't offend you" she said.

"I think it would be cool" said Sextus.

"Well young man, we were going to use some of Albertine's brother Pete's excellent potions for a while to actually enjoy being married before we started a family" said his father "we thought we'd give ourselves the year round before trying for a baby."

Sextus grinned.

"Sounds okay to me" he said "Reckon babies COULD be a bit of a distraction."

"Meh" said Lilith "reckon if they get too irritating you can stick 'em on the stall" and she winked.

Severus cuffed her; she WAS his responsibility after all.

"I do like babies" said Albertine "But I didn't want to rear a baby without a husband; I know how hard ma had it. And I never actually hoped to find anyone who was as good as Ashley, who doesn't mind me being part goblin and illegitimate."

"Anyone who minded should have their block knocked off" said Ashley.

"I am in complete agreement with you, my dear fellow" said Severus. "My cousin is a lovely woman; and though it's a quiet family wedding, it's not everyone who gets married out of Malfoy Manor so there's the seal of approval of society on the wedding. Well the society who counts" he added. That Narcissa loved arranging weddings and social events did help!

Sextus returned with the Snapes for tea and to shed his page boy costume because he said he would probably take wandlash from his mother over it. Severus sincerely pitied Sextus; the boy loved his mother despite her rather scatty ways and singleminded dislike of his father. Severus wondered why she had got pregnant in the first place if she disliked Ashley so much; and too wondered why she should dislike him so much. He seemed inoffensive enough; and apart from being dippy enough to want to shake, Madam Scarpin was harmless enough too. He wondered whether her dippiness HAD caused Ashley to be violent towards her; but she displayed no fear, only dislike and scorn.

Severus wondered whether, as a sensitive, Ashley had wandered somewhere in wizarding space or failed to be repelled by a muggle repelling spell and Madam Scarpin had fancied him and had not actually found out that he was a muggle until she was pregnant. It would be like someone as haphazard as Lucretia Scarpin to sleep with someone because she felt like it and ask his name afterwards. She was sufficiently younger than Severus that their paths had never crossed at school; not did he recall teaching her, so she must have been born somewhere between 1967 and 1971; making her between twenty three and twenty seven when Sextus was conceived, so no babe to be seduced by an older man but old enough to know what she was doing since Ashley was plainly not the sort of serial seducer that Crassus Prince was, for example. Not that it was any of Severus' business; save that it was his business that his daughter's best friend suffered from his mother's sulks. Ravenclaw of course. Young Sextus at least knew his own mind and was ready to stand up for his right to see both parents; but Lucretia was going the right way about having the lad decide to move in with his father; and as his father was married, the law would almost certainly come down on his side, muggle or no, as his wife was of the wizarding world. And socially well connected.

And Severus had managed to persuade Albertine to accept as a wedding present a trust fund to send their children to school and too to provide extras if she wished for her stepson Sextus. Albertine was a proud woman; but she would accept help for her children from wealthy Cousin Severus.

Severus had also used word of mouth to send people to the junk shop – or curio shop as Ashley preferred to call it – to the section Lilith and Sextus had opened in wizarding space which had been a ridiculously high level piece of ritual for two young children. Ashley was concentrating on such things as manual typewriters, sewing machines, gramophones and so on in there that wizarding families could use without contravening any laws about inappropriate use of muggle items. Lydia's goblin steel morphing foot had been approved by the ministry for manufacture and distribution as it did no more than muggle artefacts, being merely combined all in one with the use of the coefficient of magical expansion and mutability to change form. Lydia was making Ashley sole distributor for a year as HER wedding present. And Ashley had also taken out an advertisement for his shop with several papers; and whilst the ad for Pencastle Curios nestled discreetly alongside one for the Travelling Cauldron Kit in the 'Times', it was rather outflanked in the 'Prophet' by one that read

"_Witches! Are YOUR children coming home infested with chizpurfles? Try the NEW Chiz-away__TM __ dedicated wand. You'll NEVER be troubled with chizpurfles again!"_

The ads in the 'Prophet' were all like that; making extravagant and almost fraudulent claims. Lucius was always threatening to use their less than adequate small print for a law suit if the 'Prophet' annoyed him in a way that was not easily open to lawsuit directly; but had not yet got around to it. Perhaps Gorbrin would make it a hobby to hunt down some of the advertisers when he was an auror; one did – or at least the intelligent and informed reader did, that is discounting most of those who took the 'Prophet' – rather boggle at

"_Are YOUR curtains full of Doxies? Try AGENT TANGERINE__TM__ the NEW IMPROVED doxy toxin and kill those doxies dead__!_

Especially as the small print, virtually unreadable on the poor quality paper and with poor quality ink read:

"_Not suitable for use near children or animals; always read the instruction on packet_" as a rather poor disclaimer.

The 'Times' ad and word of mouth would do more for Ashley than a line in a rag like the 'Prophet' any day.

oOoOo

Severus did receive a letter from a quaestor representing Mr Cherrytree citing assault; and Severus wrote back calmly asking the quaestor to put it to his client that, in defending himself, he, Severus, would bring a counter suit of attempted bribery, and that the poison pen letters written by the daughter of Mr Cherrytree would be entered as evidence over why such bribery was likely to make the calmest man angry.

There was no more said.

The quaestor would doubtless have advised his client that whatever the outcome of any suit against Professor Snape, the production in a public courtroom of poison pen letters opened his daughter to prosecution; he would have been a poor sort of quaestor had he not made the realities of the case clear.

Severus wondered cynically whether it was his daughter's wellbeing that moved Cherrytree or his own good name. There would be NO problem children if there were no problem parents; though at times it would be a good idea if children came with small print warnings like Agent TangerineTM.

This last thought was in response to Sextus and Lilith buying a packet of condoms – why they could not stick to balloons like normal children he did not know – inflating them, drawing smiley faces on them, transfiguring the air inside into helium and releasing them to sail across the countryside before Sextus returned home to his mother.

oOoOo

Severus returned to Austria after some time with his family in England; most of them came with him. Lydia and Viktor had been holding the fort; the staff took it in turns to be there over all the holiday period, since there were resident children apart from the exam students. Severus was wondering whether to actually dispense with the custom held long at Hogwarts whereby the exam classes remained in school to revise, and insist instead on his exam students actually taking a holiday. Still, under his eye he could firmly insist on time off from revision; some children would ruin their health over working at home without strict discipline; and alas some parents would encourage or even force them to work too hard just because they thought it for the best. He had heard about the unfortunate Mafalda Prewett from Mimi, whose parents had to be threatened with a suit for child abuse and whom Albus had tied with an unbreakable vow not to make their daughter study five hours a day every day every holiday. Poor kid! Whilst his own children might just do that for fun – one thought immediately of Lilith – it was NOT the idea of fun of everyone; and making something compulsory only took the joy of it away. It was why he had never had formal music lessons for any of the kids save when they asked to know more. Music was a joy and should not be made into a chore; and if some considered academic studies in the same light, well they were a minority as Severus accepted. And even Lilith liked to take a day to do things outside and put her books away; and even Lilith read works of fiction not excluding comics as well as the likes of 'Transactions of the Learned Society of Potioneers'.

Severus accordingly limited the revision periods to two hour-and-a-half sessions a day, and shooed the children outside for the rest, making sure to confiscate any books not of the most frivolous kind. He counted Jane Austen in this category; Lydia was fond of the author and had introduced Elsie Blackwood to them, and to Georgette Heyer, and Elsie was to be readily seduced from study for fiction, which was just as well. Severus thought she could have scraped grades in all eight of her NEWTs last year; she was perfectly well prepared. And Elsie WAS delicate, though being of the blooded had helped that no end, and Severus had no doubt that by the end of the year she would be as robust as her friend Emily Grant. Whose light reading was books about quidditch; but that was Emily. And Severus had too promised the Blackwoods that he would not permit Elsie to overdo it; and as she was his kindred he could now feel when she WAS overdoing it.

oOoOo

As part of the enforced relaxation, Severus arranged day trips; a day out to Vienna sightseeing and shopping was much enjoyed; the children were permitted to break up into groups of three or four and do their own thing and the sixth might go in pairs.

Here Emily and Elsie came close to quarrelling; Elsie had no intention of wasting an afternoon in a culture rich city going to find the headquarters of the Vienna Vampires quidditch team however historic it might be; and Emily declared that looking at art and architecture made her hair ache. It brought home how much the two girls WERE likely to grow apart, one of Elsie's reasons for embracing the blood group. Emily talked fast to be permitted to go as a pair with her sister Kate; and Elsie paired up with Randolph, who might not have been an exam student but who preferred to stay in school anyway. He took her to see the Wiener Werkstatte building, and architecture by Otto Wagner as well as visiting the Ringstrasse. Irmi and Sebastian went looking for a park with secluded benches for snogging discreetly between culture; and Adrian, Evangeline and Yukya bought a guide book of important wizarding landmarks and determinedly followed it.

Darryl had his Mimi with him and they went to a muggle dance hall where Strauss was the order of the day.

It may be said that most of the fifth went for ice cream and the three musical among them went in search of free music on bandstands. The Jorkins twins reckoned they had the best time because they found a visiting circus and snuck in free because they could not work out the muggle money that was required.

oOoOo

Another day trip was a stiff day's walk up one of the local mountains; and only Adrian made comments to the effect that as they lived on top of one mountain, climbing another seemed a little superfluous. Severus taught them how to bend the knees to make walking easier; he had done rather a lot of Alpine walking. The views were superb; as Severus pointed out, sometimes living right at the top of a mountain made one forget the glories of nature lower down. Randolph made a lot of sketches; and too took photographs. Callum had said that though copying from photos made for a flatness in the painting, there was no harm using a photo as an aide memoire allied with sketches.

He had probably not been thinking of a digital camera however.

Randolph had no interest in tinkering around with chemicals; Potioneering was NOT his thing. And one might do so much with digital pictures; and only print out the ones required. Dudley Dursley had let him set up a corner of HIS computer to use, so Randolph had blown some of his fees on the new Canon EOS 400 SLR and a couple of extra lenses. It was true that his camera would not record magical animals, and nor would the images move – unless he used it in video mode – but that was not what Randolph was after.

He had every intention of making his name as a photographer in the muggle world too; because with apportation he could go anywhere in the world without any fuss or bother. And he was a more than capable arithmancer to be able to work out where he was going even without knowing much geomancy.

The other young people were fascinated by the way Randolph could show them the picture he had just taken on the screen on the back of the camera; and Randolph was induced to take snaps of the two classes for posterity, though he did warn them that waving did no good because it would only make a blur as these pictures would NOT move. And yes, he liked them better that way because it made it easier to work from them when painting.

Most of the young witches and wizards secretly thought muggles must be a little boring to like their pictures unmoving all the time; until Julian pointed out that muggles HAD invented film which was a whole lot more than gently jiggling pictures and that Wizarding Wireless Vision was only just beginning to catch up from copying it; which meant static photos were perhaps considered a restful alternative.

It was an interesting debate; but by the time it had arisen, the hill was steep enough that breath was better used for walking than debating.

Food had been packed into a Bottomless BagTM, which Severus considered one of the more useful inventions of the wizarding twentieth century; the inside of the bag was a portion of wizarding space and an inordinate amount of food could be packed without it becoming heavy. Severus had also bought one with a cooling and preserving charm on it especially for campers; it held enough for a family of five to camp for a week, or as Severus said unkindly a single decent sized snack for a couple of dozen teenagers.

He was given a few injured looks at this snide aside.

oOoOo

None of children of the exam classes made any difficulties on the strictures over time away from study; on the whole they were a sensible bunch. Even the Visick twins who tended to take life fairly seriously took equally seriously the lectures Severus gave on balanced needs for a healthy mind and body.

And the last treat Severus took them too was an equestrian meet near Innsbruck. Those who were interested might enter; which of those left in the castle was just the three Ingate children. Sandalla, Svetlana, Yelisaveta and Vya preferred to just watch – certainly this time. And Veta preferred not to draw attention to herself at all.

They met up with sundry of Jade's pupils; her second adoptive son Rainer on Toffee, who introduced his friend Falk Kesselring, who was hoping to come to Prince Peak with him when he was old enough, Rainer explaining that Falk was not posey to have a Pegasan Pony but had acquired it from someone who had treated it badly. The two younger boys seemed largely in company with a selection of Lucius' offspring; Penny and Lucasta of whom were competing. In Paul's age group was a boy called Berthold who admitted to being a marauder; and there was a big girl called Magda.

The two younger ones entered the obstacle races; George went for the point-to-point on his own horse – Severus had decided that if all his wards were good at riding they should have their own mounts not school ones, and George was tall enough for a real horse – and Paul too had his own mount that he rode in direct competition against Berthold. Berthold pipped him to third place; partly because he knew what was expected. Paul thought he might JUST be a better rider than Berthold; it would be fun to see how that developed. He ignored the loud and voluble French of the girl who was in fifth place, complaining that it was INSUPPORTABLE that the wretched boy should beat her again AND his horrid friend. Berthold pulled a face.

"Bad loser" he said "I'm a bit of a diviner; I KNOW things. You're a better rider than me but it should stay close with MY edge."

"Friendly rivalry over our school days then?" Paul asked. "I may not be a marauder but I do respect marauding; and I know what it means. Severus Snape is my guardian."

Berthold grinned.

"Friendly rivalry it is" he said. "It's good to let off steam; I ran away to school after Yule so I've had a lot of catching up to do; and thanks to my fellow marauders I have done and more. And I developed a skill with riding; and my parents are dead chuffed because though I have to rub shoulders with goblins I also rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Which might be pointed out includes Malfoy goblins. My parents are a bit limited."

"Parents can be" said Paul "I don't remember it, but my real father didn't want us to rub shoulders with wizarding types; my biggest brother ran away to school too, only for him it was kind of accidental. And Severus got wardship of us. I'm glad you're independent minded; we just had a girl expelled because she wrote nasty letters to the juniormost marauders, because most of them are goblins or part goblin. It was all very unpleasant and I gather she got it from her parents."

"Sometimes you have to accept that the old folk just live in a past that doesn't exist any more and move on without hurting them too much if you can manage that" said Berthold.

oOoOo

Lucy was, paradoxically, the least able of the siblings; and was glad to have come fifth in the age class above that of her brother; and George, competing against Magda and a couple of very experienced and very snotty youngsters, raised her game and his both by the friendly rivalry of associated schools and took first and second, Magda just drawing ahead on the last obstacle with George on her tail.

Into third place was another girl on a showy pegasan pony, all white and gleaming; and she scowled at George.

"I suppose you're another of these nameless bastards and orphans from the free school" she hissed "DARING to beat me!"

George blinked.

"I say" he said in his best Draco manner "Do they actually permit vulgar types like you to compete in these races? I must ask my guardian to complain. I really DO wonder what gutter you dragged your manners out of. Fraulein Schmitt, permit me to take you away from this extraordinary female before your ears are further sullied."

Magda was trying not to giggle as George took her elbow politely.

"She was all condescension first time I rode until she discovered that I was one of the Frau Baronin's orphans" she said "Though last meet, they were wondering if I was related to the Ann Schmitt who married Herzog Von Frettchen."

"Heh, he'd probably think it a laugh to encourage that rumour; the Ferret has as warped a sense of humour as Lucius. Lucius Malfoy that is; I'm afraid we knock around with his kids and treat him as a spare uncle. Have you met him?"

"Yes; he was kind enough to invite me to Malfoy Manor with my friend Biirta in the long holidays. Will – will you be there?"

"It's possible; I DO have a girlfriend already though; otherwise I should be telling you that I'd make it my business to be there" said George. "Only Flo and me have been an item since before we were old enough to realise that we were. You'll enjoy yourself; Lucius and his wives love entertaining."

"I say! Did you just turn a flirting compliment without sounding smarmy?" said Magda.

"Well it was meant as a compliment; you're a beautiful girl with a lot of talent" said George "And I certainly HOPE it didn't sound smarmy; because it was sincere."

"It's nice to get compliments that aren't the sort that end 'so lay down and open your legs'" said Magda.

"Well if you ask me, you've met some rum sort of blokes" said George.

"I'm a penniless orphan; what sort of blokes do you THINK I've met?" asked Magda.

"Evidently the sort I'd expect any orphanage director to knock the block off of" said George.

"HE was one of them" said Magda "And – and I couldn't stop him doing it."

"Have you told Jade – Frau Von Luytens?" asked George "She's a sort of big sister to me; but she'd be so sympathetic!"

"I – I hadn't; only told her that I didn't want to be used" said Magda.

"Well you jolly well tell her; and she'll arrange something unpleasant to happen to him so he can't do it to any other girls" said George firmly.

He took her over to Jade and left her to it.

Well that had been a successful day; a fun time had by all and sorting out a girl's need to speak out. He went in search of Flo, who had been cheering him on, and who was pretending not to be anxious and jealous of him chatting to the beautiful German equestrienne.

George slipped an arm around her.

"There's my girl" he said.

"The other girl's prettier than me" said Flo.

"Maybe; but YOU'RE my girl" said George. "And she poor kid has no parents and has been raped by a slimy git who was supposedly her guardian, whenever he wanted; would you REALLY change anything for that?"

"Poor girl!" said Flo "No I wouldn't; I hope she finds someone nice. But not you."

"She needs to learn she can be the one who takes control" said George. "You come from a nice balanced family background; and you already know that. This riding malarkey is something that's all hers; it'll give her a bit of confidence. Come on; let's find Fred and Vya and see what there is to eat."

oOoOo

Fred did ask Severus,

"I say sir, with all this gadding about have we actually done enough revision?"

"Yes Fred; you have. Because if you didn't learn it as you went along you can't learn it properly by cramming facts into your heads" said Severus "Each break gives your brain time to rest, consolidate, and make sense of what you've been revising. And I'm actually going to prove it to you all; because we're going to have a couple of quiz games, NEWT and OWL; and play for chocolate frogs. We'll divide your forms up by choosing stones from a bag, in the case of your class eight black and eight white; four each for the upper sixth. We'll play it after the fashion of a quiz called 'University Challenge' on muggle wireless vision; a question posed and the first team to buzz gets to answer it; and then the whole team get to confer on three other questions related to the starter question. You'll be amazed how much you know!"

The OWL quiz went first; the youngsters thoroughly and randomly mixed by the time honoured method of drawing lots. And Silvina giggled that when she had been a small child and read about drawing lots she had thought it meant drawing a lot of pictures and the best ones won.

"A not unreasonable assumption really" said Julian. He and Silvina were on the same team; the Visick twins and the Jorkins twins had been split but both Sandalla and Svetlana ended up together; and Flo was glad to be with George and Vya disappointed not to be with Fred. The marauders were split four-three; as even as it might get.

And they had magical wands prepared by Severus that lit up and made a noise when tapped on their desks; and if any buzzed and did NOT know the answer the other team was offered the question and any one might buzz there without having to be so fast off the mark.

The questions were widely varied; including a few that were pictures that had to be identified that Severus brought up in Wizarding Wireless Vision globes; George rapidly identified the breed of flying horse as a Granian; and his team might then have a second point if they could name the three other major breeds.

George quickly got Aethonan – the breed of his own horse – and everyone in the team knew Abraxans; and then George recalled living in Hogwarts and said 'thestrals' and they took the extra point.

Silvina buzzed in time to say that the antidote to Alihotsy was Glumbumble juice; and the team, who were solid potioneers if not brilliant managed to get the other three antidote questions.

Those taking Ancient Runes were split equally between the teams; and the two questions that were posed on this subject were to read a short sentence displayed in the globes in runes of some kind and answer when the contestants knew what they said. Honours were evenly divided; both were buzzed for first by AHHa; but one he got wrong by virtue of assuming the start of a quote was finished in the same way as the original quote and the other team by slower methodology got there more accurately. AHHa did NOT make the same mistake the second time.

Sometimes the buzzers were too fast off the mark as AHHa had been; or a buzzer was fired when the contestant failed to return an answer, having either had a nervous twitch and buzzed without meaning to, or the contestant experienced one of those awful moments when the answer trickles out of the brain as the contestant opened his or her mouth. But it was good fun; and they DID know rather a lot more than they realised!

Then it was the turn of the NEWT students; who had been the audience for the OWL children; and good revision for them too, as Severus had pointed out to his staff.

The questions were commensurably harder; and there were a few groans as names like Waffling, Golapott and Gamp were bandied around. Irmi had ended up on the opposite team to Sebastian; and actually it had ended up a bit unfairly as Severus pointed out since Sebastian, Elsie and Darryl all ended up on the same team, being the ones who had the widest knowledge base for taking the most NEWTs.

"That's all right sir, the rest of us can spectate" quipped Irmi, who knew that in any other school, even Hogwarts, the five NEWTs she was taking would mark her as a high flyer.

Indeed only the three top students COULD answer some of the questions since they were the only ones taking Arithmancy; and Elsie and Darryl the only two taking Ancient Runes. Still it was all a good laugh and Irmi mentioned afterwards that it was actually quite amazing what you DID pick up because she had actually known more starter questions than she had realised outside her own five subjects just by earwigging on other people's prep.

And afterwards the teams were presented with as many chocolate frogs as they had won to share out; and a list of subjects they needed to revise better, Krait having sat listening with a list of each contestant to make a note of who needed more of what.

They had the last two days of the holidays and the few weeks running up to the exams; and Krait pointed out that if any of them wanted to study a lesson over with the appropriate teacher, now was probably a good time to book such revision.

There were murmurs of appreciation.

"We certainly DID know more than we expected" said Flo "But I have to say, how useful too to know what we DON'T know; sir, I hope you'll do this every year; it's a grand way to figure out what we need."

"Yes Flo, I think I shall" said Severus. "I hoped it might help we of the staff to find out your deficiencies; and it has, as well as showing you that you can be confident about your strengths. One of the things I recall from teaching at Hogwarts was that every year at least one girl would be carted off to the san with hysterics; sometimes girls and boys both; and often people would be ill with migraine and headache for working too hard. I find that totally wrong; and I believe that Professor Fraser has also been taking steps to ensure healthy minds and bodies by drawing on the practises he has learned here, of limiting prep time; and too by limiting revision time. There is never any point making yourselves ill to cram in a few more hours study; because lessons learned by rapid cramming equally rapidly get forgotten, so any exam such might help to pass is a false result because it does not reflect your knowledge, only what facts you can remember short term. And I believe that too much studying can too make you tired enough to miss obvious points and actually be detrimental to getting a good result. And believe me, I was a swot's swot at school, with my head permanently in a book. Except that I studied for fun too; my hobby was potions as well as my best subject. Which is why I never stop any of you reading learned magazines in the common room; as it is hobby reading. And if I were you, out of the notes you have on weaknesses if you feel a need to prioritise, you'll use Golapott more often than you'll use Herpo the Foul."

"Yes sir" said Flo. "There's not really enough of Herpo's writings to make him much use to anyone; it's a curiosity more than a written language."

"Oh it has been extrapolated by other Parselmouths" said Severus "But to all intents and purposes, yes; Herpo is as useful as a cheese cauldron."

Flo grinned.

"Or a self-stirring one" she dared to tease him, knowing his prejudices

"Even so" agreed Severus. "Better simile yet; an interesting curiosity that is used purely to show that it can be and serving no real useful purpose."

Flo chuckled. The headmaster was so very droll when he was on one of his pet hobby horses!


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

The students returned in a loud mass via train, the Lowther twins chuckling over having freaked out muggle passengers by pretending to hold a serious debate on whether Alice Cooper or Pink Floyd had the best critique of schooling. This led to having to sing 'School's out for the summer' and 'We don't want no education' – properly titled 'another brick in the wall' – to explain; whereupon they were bombarded with indignant enquiries, mostly from the goblins in the school, as to whether muggles were stupider than Professor Nuffield said or was education so cheap for them that they treated it with such contempt. And Peter and Fred had to explain that education was, save for those who chose private schools, both free and compulsory; and had been for so long that it WAS treated with contempt, and that besides the point of the Pink Floyd song was that it was used to train children to conform more than to actually teach them; which had a significant element of the truth, rather like the way Durmstrang had brainwashed good little Nazis.

The critics calmed down over such an explanation and declared that free education was good but that those who didn't deserve an education didn't ought to get it and that should be gauged by behaviour.

The discussion got wildly political and was still raging by the time they got to Prince Peak where Darryl spoke up and said that this was why Marauders believed in opening schools for free but being picky about who they took and that half the kids offered places in Jade's school had turned them down because they didn't want to be with the other race which was equally silly from goblins as from humans; but nobody ever said people had to be sensible.

"And I must say" he said "Much as I love school I DO like it when school's out for the summer because a rest is good; and I get to see my girlfriend."

Mocking kissing noises were made and several people went giggling into school whilst undoing a selection of pustules and tentacles.

oOoOo

The weather was hot; and work hard to settle down to. The swarm of huge mosquitoes blown up the mountain in a freak air movement did not help and there was much misery, slapping, yelling and attempts to slay them one at a time with stinging hexes until Darryl solved the problem with a shouted '_Moskita Kedavra'_ that destroyed the whole ominously whining cloud in a flash of green.

"Lateral thinking there old boy" said Rory "I was wondering if we'd have to brew up an insecticide and what it would do to my garden plants; and whatever it was still preferable to being dive-bombed by a bunch of vampiric Stukas."

"THAT's a muggle reference that passes me by; but glad to oblige anyway" said Darryl. "Your garden and its carefully introduced suitable creepy crawlies are saved from extinction; let me just slip into a phone booth and get my pants off from outside my tights and resume the persona of mild mannered schoolboy etcetera."

"Idiot" said Rory amicably.

"I thought I heard millions of whining voices cry out and were suddenly stilled" misquoted Peter.

"Even Obi-wan Kenobi would whack mossies" said Fred, Gibbsing his brother.

oOoOo

There were a few magical accidents caused by hot children not concentrating; the fifth, permitted to revise outside under the beech tree were trying to keep cool by describing cool places; and Rose Hubble's rather uncontrolled wand, waved for emphasis, accidentally transfigured Stripy the School Leopard into Irritated, the School Emperor Penguin squawking in consternation and in imminent danger of falling off the branch immediately above Rose. The combined efforts of the First Peak Marauders had her back in her proper form as she fell so at least she landed on her feet; wherupon she gently but firmly cuffed Rose with a big paw and stalked off in high dudgeon to a place in the shade where she could wash vigorously.

Rose picked herself up and went over to do her ears in deep contrition.

Stripy made her work for forgiveness before firmly washing Rose and reducing her to a bundle of helpless giggle.

oOoOo

The thunderstorm in the middle of the night came as a relief; until those who had got up to watch it because there was no point trying to sleep though it – unless you were Emily Grant who would not, Elsie declared, awaken for the Last Trump or Ragnarrok or any other apocalyptic encounter without quidditch attached – had the shock of what looked to be a very apocalyptic encounter of their own. Ball lightening is frightening; and rolled about with seeming intelligence and malevolence. Even the prefects were frightened; and then the calm voice of Madam Malfoy was extending through the whole school explaining that Professor Snape was dealing with the noisy little problem in the yard and anyone who was awake should put on slippers and dressing gowns and proceed to the great hall where cocoa would be served presently.

What Severus and Krait did, with help from the other blooded staff, was to drive another copper rod into the earth actually inside the castle compound; the ones set up to electrocute the fey were protecting the cable car and the surroundings of the castle and reducing the number of balls that actually fell into the compound; the final rod dealt with any left.

The thunder continued to rumble however without rain; and Severus called for volunteers to join him down the mountain where the villagers might be losing their crops to burning balls.

The upper sixth volunteered as a body; apart from Emily who was still asleep and snoring, giggled Irmi, fit to rival the thunder.

Krait remained in charge of the school, cuddling a screaming David Augustus who refused to be pacified by blood pulse until he had made his disapprobation felt; and Severus led sundry staff and the upper sixth – he had refused to take any younger – to help the villagers. After all in the confusion it was hardly likely that they would notice that the School contingent were using magically summoned jets of water to put out fire.

He was glad that they did go; only the amount of water of a dozen concentrated _aguamenti_ spells was sufficient to get a fire out in time to save the family trapped in the burning chalet and their livestock in the barn that was built against it.

And then the rain came; and the wizarding folk quietly withdrew to a place from which they could apparate discreetly.

The rain was torrential; and almost as noisy as the thunder. And Silvina absently fetched a drum kit from the music room and had her little brothers and sisters giggling with 'symphony for thunder and Emily's snores'.

The cocoa was welcome; and it was a couple of hours before it was worth while going back to bed.

And it may be said in the morning that Emily had three pillows thrown at her when she asked the other girls what was keeping them in bed so long and why hadn't the rising bell gone yet.

She was told in no uncertain terms and retired abashed in the search for breakfast by wheedling any elves who might be up.

Fortunately for Emily there were always those elves who did not permit night alarums to interfere with their routine; and she was fed coffee and a doorstep of bread and honey and listened to a fuller account of the storm than her sleepy dormitory mates were prepared to give.

"I say! WHAT a daisy; I'm quite sorry I missed it" said Emily. "And missed pulling my weight in the village too" she added soberly; for Emily had a well developed sense of responsibility.

"We all know you WOULD have been there if you had been awake" said Sirri coming in. "Nobody's about to point fingers or cast stones; though I fear you WILL get ragged for a while over your ability to sleep for Austria."

"Someone should have whispered in her ear that the gods were chucking bludgers of fire about" quipped Severus, coming in search of coffee "That might have penetrated where thunder, lightening and rain that was coming down so hard it stopped a foot off the ground failed."

Emily reddened but grinned.

"Fair comment" she said. "Well if I'm ragged I guess I can see why; it's rather funny really when you hear about it afterwards!"

"Well my dear, if I could bottle your capacity to sleep the deep dreamless sleep of the just I could make a fortune selling it to insomniacs" said Severus "Be pleased you have such a facility; it makes for a healthy girl when awake. And I hope you never lose it."

"Thanks sir" said Emily; who had heard the rumour that Professor Snape was himself something of an insomniac. He was right; it was well worth being ragged for so useful a capacity!

oOoOo

The storm cleared the air and studying was easier again; to the relief of those who DID want to study through lessons they had not grasped thoroughly first time around. And the main body of the school, outside the exam group, were of course continuing with normal lessons.

And the musicians and artists got together to produce an animated film to record onto the viewing globes used to show recordings on the viewing screen; and the song 'if Emily was awake' spoke of how the quidditch captain would use a bludger bat to knock the ball lightening right back over the walls.

Emily laughed as loudly as anyone; which is why they had ventured to do it because Emily WAS a good sport and could take a joke against herself. Even the quip by Arbrek that the IAQ was thinking of introducing an eighth position called 'Sleeper' in which that team player had to balance on the three hoops of the goal and remain asleep whatever transpired and either sleeper awakening could end the match in the same way as catching the snitch.

Emily cuffed him affectionately and laughed.

oOoOo

The Chanting Exam for both NEWTs and OWLs was first as Lucius had to travel around Europe to test it; and he declared that anyone who had participated in the twelve hour chant really required no other practical. As the only ones taking it to NEWT were Irmi, Darryl, Sebastian and Elsie, who HAD all taken part they were much relieved to have that dictate. As Darryl said, rather like those who had gained their DADA in toto for fighting Voldemort, you couldn't have a much stiffer exam than real life.

The written exams for both OWL and NEWT took place in the morning, with the practical for the OWL to be after lunch.

The four NEWT students thought it a nice exam; there was a big essay question quoting the nonsense rhymes cited by Cato the Elder for knitting bones and the question asked for comment on such muggle rhymes and chants.

This called for quoting the various repetitive and jangling rhymes from a number of cultures, some of which featured in Severus' book 'One hundred and one simple chants and rhythms and their meanings' because muggle culture did borrow – especially before the statute of secrecy – from the magical world. Darryl wrote confidently that the precise wording of a chant was relatively immaterial providing it was appropriate in the mind of the chanter by assimilative correlation of some form or other, though most wizards would be most comfortable using either the Hittite chant 'hastai-kan, hastai handan' meaning 'bone be attached to bone' or the Irish 'Ault fri halt di, féith fri féth' of 'joint to joint, sinew to sinew' since both contained seven syllables and most of the rest contained fifteen, a good number, being three fives, but not as traditionally powerful and that personally he would design one with twenty three syllables on a seven-nine-seven syllable base of three lines. He added that it was interesting that muggles believed in the power of such chants, perhaps suggesting that the muggleborn were rather ignored by the wizarding world but managed to get action out of chanting to give the chants credence; even after the meaning had been lost by the Romans managing to garble the Etruscan so badly that translation of Cato's quotes was now impossible for being so meaningless.

The other three were writing equally busily, also quoting Severus, and Elsie was cheerfully writing that it seemed likely that either the wizarding community had been fairly well connected across indo-European countries of antiquity that similar chants were to be found in so many languages or there was a convergent evolution of ideas in different communities. She noted that most of the chants were a bit pedestrian and that personally she would prefer to use assimilative correlation by culture and use the nursery rhyme 'Healer Healer fix my thumb' that every wizarding child knew because assimilative correlation was more powerful than any set words.

All of them wrote that the power of twenty three in a healing chant was likely to be more efficacious.

There were paragraph questions too on curse breaking chants – some of which called for a chant to be designed to break a particular curse – and on the origins of chanting and on various poetic forms. In the curse breaking chants Elsie, Darryl and Sebastian included far more Arithmancy than was necessary and Elsie and Darryl included more ancient runes than were needed too. It may be said that Lucius enjoyed reading the papers that year, which also included efforts from Ming Chang, Gorbrin and Lilith in Hogwarts and Takeo Namudzu as well as the Asimov twins, who both took it a year early, in Durmstrang; and was, in his opinion, the most erudite set of answers he had ever received in any one year, discounting the odd singular student.

oOoOo

The eleven of the fifth who were taking chanting – all but four of the class – had written knowledgeably enough as behoved the students of the man who reintroduced chanting to the wizarding world. The exam was along fairly expected lines, covering knowledge of poetry forms, picking which form to team with which type of curse to be broken, and designing a brief chant to tie a charm to an item if one knew no enchanting rituals. The fifth thought it all very easy.

The ruthless drilling that had been done in voice training left them no excuse for not finding the practical in the afternoon easy too; Lucius divided them into groups of seven and four, for an arithmantically good number and a locationally arithmantically good number as being the cardinal points, and they chanted for an hour to exclude all sharks from the circle they defined; which almost disrupted Flo, who had to fight a fit of the giggles over the idea of finding sharks on top of a mountain.

oOoOo

Then there was almost a week to wait before the rest of the exams would begin; which would start with the NEWTs. And the NEWT students decided to rest their brains somewhat and take a long weekend without any study and returned to last minute revision much refreshed.

oOoOo

This was the first year of the new format potions exam which permitted the brewing of a more complex potion than could be completed in a single session to demonstrate virtuosity, allied with a simpler and shorter practical. Elsie, Sebastian and Darryl had elected to brew Felix Felicis; which had entailed some negotiations with the examination board. As the longest part of the brewing required the collection of bottled sunlight collected in a specially prepared potion held in a prism-cut bottle the brewing had needed to begin just after Yule; and the students of Prince Peak were glad not to be the solitary student in Hogwarts that the examiner mentioned was brewing the same potion; collecting sunlight in Scotland would require beginning the brew long before Yule. As the peak of the Prinzhorn was rarely encased in too much weather, being well above most of the jetstreams, collecting sunshine was not a problem and it was guaranteed that it would mature after the Easter holidays for last minute inclusion. Mr Hopkirk had murmured something about it being inevitable that the students of Severus Snape being so ambitious when he had spoken to them at the beginning of the September term.

Emily, Evangeline, Adrian and Irmi were a little less ambitious, although Potioneering was Emily's best subject. They decided that the brewing of Veritaserum, taking a full moon, was a less exciting alternative and still an 'O' grade potion; Felix was, declared Irmi, purely for pose-points.

"But we DO get a licence to brew Felix out of it" said Darryl "And if we want to do potioneering or teach to high level that means we don't have to take a separate exam for it; it's pure laziness, not entirely swank."

Irmi laughed.

"Darryl, you're as bad as a Malfoy; you can swank AND find a way to be lazy both at once."

"Guilty" said Darryl, winking at Sebastian who was pulling a face that he had not thought of the quick come-back to his girlfriend.

"Who IS brewing Felix in Hogwarts?" Irmi had asked "Lilith?"

"No; Lilith decided like you that Veritaserum was enough to show her virtuosity" said Severus "It's Gorbrin."

"Oh, a Malfoy; no surprise then" said Irmi laughing. "I'm surprised Lilith isn't, though."

"Lilith reckons that brewing Felix is too much of a breeze – she's been helping me for years - as well as deciding not to put the time she can use for other subjects into something she reckons she should do well at anyway," explained Severus. "She can't have a Felix licence until she's seventeen anyway."

The Prince Peak potioneers used The Acme Almanac which despite the corny title – or maybe because of it – was a very good publication, and Callum Prince was one of the contributors on the predictions side. And the four editors, which included Callum and his Arithmancer wife Cynthia, were all veterans of the MSHG. It was however very nice of Professor Fraser to contact the school with the information that the reputable and well established 'Arithmancer's Almanac' had got the dates of the moon phases over the holiday wrong by a day – fortunately a day early rather than a day late – that could have seriously affected the brewing of Veritaserum and the other few moon-based potions. The Acme Almanac was spot on.

When the exam came, all six candidates felt very confident in their prepared potions that were labelled, signed for, and stored under lock and key to be taken away by the examiners; and they went happily one by one to undertake the new tests, that emphasised more the collection and storing of potioneering ingredients. Collecting and storing ashwinder eggs posed no problems; nor did analysing a blended poison and collecting the ingredients that would be required to brew an antidote. They were not required to brew an antidote but Elsie picked up some extra marks for commenting that the amount of certain ingredients could be reduced by the use of a complex arithmantic procedure of stirs or a chant. Darryl just chanted over his ingredients and then explained why; though this was still worth extra points. The final test was to identify unmarked ingredients with extra marks given if the candidate did not have to resort to Scarpin's Revellaspell. None of them had to; this was something else they were well drilled in, and a glance and a sniff sufficed for all of them. The examiner was impressed.

The written followed in the afternoon; which involved the analysis of potions by printed Malfoy Lines from the Revellaspell; and all made the disapproving note that as the Elixir to Induce Euphoria lacked peppermint it was an incomplete potion that would display unwanted side effects. The question 'explain why Golapott's first law is not merely assumed within the third' was rather interesting and the subtle distinction that the first law required, for the antidote to a single poison, merely that the antidote's ingredients EQUAL or exceeding it; whereas for a blended poison, covered in the third law, exceeding the original sum of ingredients was required. Darryl, Sebastian, Emily and Elsie wrote that this was due to the additional effect – Darryl wrote 'additional synergistic effects', being more subject to Severus' vocabulary – of a blend making a whole new poison with additional and sometimes unexpected effects, and Darryl added arithmantic notes and a sketched graph which was decidedly post NEWT in scale and came from discussing the matter over breakfast one morning with Severus and Krait in the Yule holidays, which had prompted pointed comments from several other breakfasters on the lack of wisdom of eating when potioneers were allowed to talk.

And Darryl grinned to himself recalling the discussion, certain that Lilith, who had joined in, was also drawing a graph and writing too many arithmantic notes!

It may be noted that though the rest of the class were not AS affected by Severus' vocabulary as Darryl, several people did describe a blended poison in terms of a 'concatenation of not wholly controllable effects'.

oOoOo

The next exam was Arithmancy; only Elsie, Darryl and Sebastian were involved in this.

The exam had the usual nasty pieces of calculus to solve apportation; the calculation of where two nodes were for nodal shift given four ley lines; and the calculation of the best time to tackle a curse

with temporal properties. It was apparent that the examiner who set THAT question had knowledge of muggle films since it asked that if Princess Fiona was cursed to turn into a troll during the hours of darkness, when should one attempt to break the curse for best results. Darryl answered that the time to break the curse depended on whether Princess Fiona preferred to be a human all the time or a troll and that the enchantment in all good Arthurian tales could only be truly broken if she was given the choice. He then proceeded to work out the optimal times for both preferences of the princess; after all in Shrek, Fiona had preferred to be an ogre with her ogre boyfriend. There were other normally excruciating questions and the final one with its ominous disyllabic question 'explain' was nothing more nor less than the engulfing charm and so quite easy to explain.

oOoOo

After Arithmancy was Ancient Runes; which was taken only by Darryl and Elsie. There were three passages to translate; one in Ogham, one in Hittite and one in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Each one dealt with the transcription of the trial of a thief and the sentence given; and the remainder of the exam was to comment on how the national characteristics of each culture might be shown in the choice of language and to a lesser extent in the punishment given. The Celtic nature dealt in balance and reparation and putting right damage caused by a criminal; the Hittite courts leaned heavily to punishment for discouragement of others; and the Egyptian view was more the horror of the sacrilege of stealing from a tomb and the fact that the greater punishment would occur in the afterlife. Both Elsie and Darryl enjoyed themselves no end, since this sort of discussion of how a language and its use defined a society was to their tastes; and they had enjoyed many discussions on the subject in and out of class. Darryl had too enjoyed such debates with Gorbrin and Ming before he came to Prince Peak; and only regretted that he had not made friends with Gorbrin and his set before. He had taken Ancient Runes to OWL initially because he was interested; and having maintained that interest was also a convert to the Snapian philosophy that Arithmancy underlay everything and Runes were required for the highest level of use of practical skills such as enchantment, potioneering and chanting and helped to avoid the dark arts if one might only recognise harmful sigils; and ward off dark arts by the use of protective sigils. He wrote more than he needed and returned an essay somewhat above NEWT level and including quotes from 'Translations and Text' forgetting to translate the German of Agalisse Schreiber, the contributor he was quoting, back into English since he had become quite trilingual in Prince Peak.

oOoOo

Nobody was taking the new exam in Art at NEWT; Randolph would take it at OWL this year, his lower sixth year, and take NEWT with his other NEWTs the year after. Therefore the next exam was Charms, since nobody was taking astronomy this year, Pru being in the lower sixth and sufficiently readily keeping up with her work that Severus had no qualms about letting her continue with all four of her chosen subjects.

The two long questions, one on Barrier Charms and one on Memory Charms were looking for answers about how to control muggles; so Darryl feeling contrary wrote about age lines and dark creature exclusion lines under Barrier Charms as well as the usual charms to inhibit eavesdropping, locking spells and the fidelius charm. In Memory Charms he mentioned confundment and obliviation for muggles almost in passing and wrote a post NEWT answer on the use of memory modification as a medical aide with children who had suffered deep trauma perhaps by drawing off memories to store until the child was older and might wish to view them second hand in the Pensieve. Emily, who did not realise she was supposed to be talking about muggles, wrote happily about the use of the new barrier to prevent bludgers threatening the crowd as an added part of the game of quidditch as well as mentioning all the normal charms to prevent pests and juniors, but she repeated herself, from entering certain places. Elsie, Sebastian and Yukya all returned more or less conventional answers only at a generally higher level than was required. The short questions posed no problems to anyone.

The practical followed fairly standard lines. Holiday makers up to see the rack railway had to be observed from invisibility then confunded or obliviated to forget that they had seen a flying horse. The students were then required to move a tree from one place to another using digging charms and _mobiloarbus_ which was easy enough to arrange as the charcoal burners were considering felling some sycamores, that did not make good charcoal, to make way for some oak saplings; and with a little arrangement the candidates moved the young trees to the land owned by the school; with the charcoal burners watching in wide eyed wonder, much to the disapproval of the examiner.

"They are not about to tell the folk in the village" said Emily, impatiently "They stood by us to fight the werewolves of Odessa; they knew it was a school for magic in Miss Cackle's time and said it had been the castle of a wizard time out of mind before her mother even. For some muggles it's just politer to let them know; they are friends of the wizarding world."

It seemed unnatural to be watched by muggles; but Madam Trewkettle put up with it. Somehow she realised that the self contained young people of Prince Peak would go out of their way to preserve the right of these muggles to know; and she preferred not to cross the straight-looking, confident and able pupils of Severus Snape, such a far cry from the pupils of Cackle's that he had taken on.

oOoOo

Nobody was taking Comparative Magic; apart from the odd maverick of previous years, it had not really been going long enough as a regular class. The largest number studying it seriously was currently the fourth and below. Care of Domestic Beasts was equally unpopular in this year, though Elsie and Sebastian had gained 'O' at OWL; but then they had done so well over all that they had to drop a few subjects at NEWT! Hence there was a full day's break before the DADA exams. And all those who had been involved with repelling the Fey last year were exempted the practical, which was all five of those taking the exam, Emily, Sebastian, Adrian, Irmi and Darryl. The written exam covered the unforgivable curses, cursed items, the recognition of someone under compulsion, and counter curses. There was the usual bonus question on horcruces and how to destroy them; and the five thought it quite ridiculously easy. Which for seasoned fighters against the dark arts it really was. Severus told the group afterwards, with a wry smile, that the exam was harder than in his young days; but that such was merely a reflection of a whole generation used to fighting dark arts and dark creatures whilst still at school.

oOoOo

Nobody was taking Divination; and only Yukya and Evangeline were taking enchantment. There was a long question regarding the enchantment of gates, hiding doors and the ways into wizarding space, citing platform nine-and-three-quarters as an exemplar. Yukya returned a good solid answer; and wrote a second essay on wand woods and cores, and matching wand to wizard, using Willow Prince Black's book 'Why the Wand IS the Wizard' to quote from since the school had been sent a complimentary copy and Yukya had baggsed it first. The last two questions were shorter essays, one on dedicated wands and why they were still useful in a world where all adults could carry a wand; and on the choice of broom woods and the way different woods took the cushioning charms. Yukya pointed out that as the current statistics suggested that less than half the wizarding world attended school if one counted goblins, elves and sundry other beings, the use of dedicated wands enchanted to a single spell effect were imperative for those who could not manage all of the spells to be found within such items; and that of those who had attended school it was a small percentage of those who achieved a NEWT in Transfigurations to use that level of transfigurational spell such as water summoning; and what were the faucets in wizarding tents but dedicated water summoning wands hidden as familiar items. He added that moreover many children below seventeen found dedicated wands useful, such as those old enough to shave but too young to cast their own grooming spells at home. He finished off with a methodical treatise on broom wood and how well each shaft took a cushioning charm and noted that it was a compromise between speed and comfort.

Yukya was never going to set the world alight with any new research or innovation; but he was a solid student capable of getting 'O' in the three subjects he was taking; and he was considering teaching as an option.

The practical involved coring a wand, then enchanting one of a number of items – a candlestick, a pair of slippers, a book, a plate and a bottle – to perform an enchanted action when a particular condition pertained. Yukya, who found it easy, got carried away and did all five. He enchanted his candlestick to light a candle when it was placed in the socket, his pair of slippers to act as a warming charm if the temperature was below forty degrees Fahrenheit – any higher was, he said, unnecessary and sinful luxury – his book to always open where it had last been closed so you would never lose your place; the plate to fill on command with things you knew were in the preserving cabinet; and the bottle to pour of its own accord when ordered to do so. They were more pedestrian enchantments than some but perfectly reasonable and very well crafted. Making a shopping trolley fly was child's play. Evangeline grinned shakily when it was all over and said she thought she had done enough to get an 'E'; which was for her the sum of her ambitions.

oOoOo

Sebastian was the lone entrant for Geomancy; and if Madam Burns did not take her class of one for breakfast at sundry sites around Austria as David had done, she was a good teacher and Sebastian felt well prepared.

He calculated the speed of travel of three means of travel from one given location to another to see which was the quickest route and discovered that anyone who had assumed and wrote 'nodal shift' would have been wrong. It was one of those times that being a good arithmancer came in handy. Then he wrote the list of probable order in which the Knight Bus would visit a set list of destinations, using Assimilative Correlation by Locational Nomenclature, or as he wrote dryly in the case of Ernie Prang, Assimilative Correlation by Awful Pun and Empty Head. The last essay question was on the reasons behind the choice of the route of the Hogwarts express, which included the use of ley lines, the avoidance of concentrations of muggles and other factors. Then there was a paper of short questions; and the written was over.

The practical involved being taken to England to collect a pale blue scarf from Cambridge, a bright green hat from Lincoln, a macrame bag from Nottingham and a Fair-isle sweater from Carlisle. Sebastian sniffed and muttered about Assimilative Correlation by Janus Thickey Ward and did as he was bid.

The Herbology exam involved Snargaluff this year; and Elsie groaned. Had she had a mandrake to uproot she was fairly confident of getting an 'O'; being slight as well as having been delicate, dealing with a snargaluff would cost her the highest grade. She shrugged, sighed, and got on with it; but managed only one pod in the time allotted. Still that was a pass; and she might pass on to the written on which she hoped to drag her mark up to an 'E'. Evangeline was delighted to get two pods; her theory was not as good as Elsie's.

Elsie enjoyed the written exam as it happened; and wrote a learned essay on compost and soil types and strayed into a post NEWT discussion on the level of acidity or alkalinity of the soil, as might be measured using Scarpin's revellaspell and was graded according to the method of Adam Scarrab, author of 'Soil types and how to exploit and improve them' and 'The importance of Manure'. It had taken a while for his discoveries to be made any real use of; since Mr Scarrab had been writing in the 1960's and made his amendment on acidity in the early 1970's, by which time Voldemort was causing enough trouble to those in power that Herbology had seemed a rather irrelevant study. Elsie had always had window boxes even before she came to school and spent a lot of time in bed; because there was endless variation to look at. And her mother was a keen gardener who had introduced her to Scarrab at a relatively early age. And since Elsie was a perfectly competent arithmancer she was quite happy with fractional measurements of the level of acid in a square foot of earth. Neutral was zero; and alkalinity was measured as negative numbers, entirely different from the muggle method, which Elsie was currently studying for fun.

She enjoyed the whole paper which was more than Evangeline, the only other entrant did – and declared happily that she had only got two exams left.

This was one more than anyone else except Irmi.

oOoOo

Irmi and Elsie were both taking History; and had to pick four questions out of eight. Both chose the question on Gellert Grindelwald's rise to power; it was something they had been at least vaguely associated with through fighting Odessa, the legacy left by the dark wizard in the hands of his grandson. Elsie also chose to answer the question on the temporary statute of secrecy during the various Roman pogrums on the magical; and on the relative status of potioneers and diviners in bronze age Hellenic culture, where potioneers were considered decidedly dodgy but augurers were revered. Her fourth essay choice was on the reasons behind the goblin uprisings in the late medieval and early modern era. Irmi picked the period of religious upheaval in Europe that was one of the main factors leading to the statute of secrecy as her second essay; returned to cover the status of potioneers and augurers in the bronze age and settled for her final essay on a discussion of the myth that witches were burned during the middle ages; it almost duplicated her work over religious upheaval, since it was heretics, not witches, who were burned; but it was easy to confuse a pagan witch for a heretic.

It was a stiff exam and neither fancied questions on the role of muggles in wizarding history since the statute of secrecy nor the one on the need to introduce more laws to limit activity as a result of the statute of secrecy.

oOoOo

And then it was Transfigurations, the final NEWT; which was Elsie, Sebastian, Irmi, Adrian, Yukya and Darryl.

There were no surprises in the written and all were trying to recall the exceptions to Gamp's law of elemental conjuration. There was a question on human transfiguration, and on the reasons that summoning matter was more difficult than summoning raw energy. And it was no surprise that Elsie, Sebastian and Darryl got far too arithmantically technical over that question! Irmi merely used Jade's example that bunnies were made of sunshine, but when you considered how much grass a bunny ate while it was growing up and the amount of sunlight required to grow that grass, the amount of energy to make a bunny suddenly looked rather large.

And in the practical they all produced permanenced potted plants of one kind or another and even Darryl managed to be fairly uncontroversial and only produced tomatoes. Their transfigurations of a fiddle to a cat went smoothly too with a selection of pedigree cats. And then the NEWTs were over; and they might enjoy their last few weeks as schoolchildren without further responsibility – save for those who were prefects!

And they all heaved a collective sigh of relief and went to relax on the high alm with picnics.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Once the NEWTs were over it was time for the OWLs to start. The first exam was Art; which was the province this year of only Randolph; who was presenting his portrait of Draco Malfoy as his masterpiece. The examiner this year was to be an eminent Argentinian artist of English descent called Androbius Pingit since the NEWT was being taken by Erica Malfoy, whose mother was to be the usual examiner, and it was felt that as Mr Pingit had volunteered it was best that the same eye judge all the work. He was much taken by the portrait – he had visited the Malfoys when Charlotte was formulating the criteria for marking – and said so.

"You've a great future as a portraitist, young man" he said. "Now, if I may test you on mixing paints, and then perhaps a demonstration of your own choice of how you use art in magic…."

Randolph mixed paints with aplomb; he was no potioneer but this was different. And for his demonstration he used a variant of his pain reducing pattern that he had used for Clovis Gierek, and executed an endless knotwork pattern encompassing the pain reduction on a strip of paper he joined to make it endless – and absently transfigured into a single piece for better continuity – that could be worn on the head to get rid of a headache. Mr Pingit grimaced slightly, then banged his head hard against the wall in order to try it.

"It works!" he said happily.

"I sort of assumed you'd look at the Arithmancy of the patterning sir" said Randolph. Pingit gave a rueful smile.

"I confess I don't know enough about every field of magic to have that level of ability" he said "So the practical demonstration seemed more appropriate. Excuse; I will use medical transfiguration to dissipate the bruising" which he proceeded to do. He was a funny little man but Randolph liked him, having only met him briefly in Malfoy Manor and thought only that at least he was man enough to be prepared to admit that there was more in art to learn. And being Randolph he said so. Mr Pingit laughed.

"Ah, the so-clever great artists who have such great egos to cover up that they fear that others might have greater skill! They are fools. Even so it was in the muggle world when academicians sneered at impressionists; and maybe they had some right for some of the daubs; but the idea! The concept! New is always despised; until it becomes the norm. And this subject has so much to offer! I kiss my hands to you and Madam and Miss Malfoy; I, who feel a fraud examining one of the originators of the subject! I look forward to reading your written exam!"

The written paper had a choice of three essay questions out of five; they were 'Discuss the universally used symbol of the sun and the magical implications of the swastika'; 'compare the use of formalised Egyptian tomb paintings, Roman encaustic paintings and modern era oil paintings in accessing the souls of the dead'; 'discuss the protective charms contained within the kolams or rangoli of the Indian sub continent'; 'discuss how the increased understanding of perspective in the Renaissance led to a greater mobility for the subjects depicted'; and 'the medium of the pattern magic has an effect upon the designed use of the pattern; discuss'.

They were all interesting subjects; and Randolph picked first the question about the improved perspective of the Renaissance because it was relevant to his career as a portrait painter and he knew how limited a portrait might be if the painter was not careful with the background. Because it was relevant to his field too he picked the comparison between the different media and traditions, pointing out that there was a lot of assimilative correlation by convention within the representation and that it was partly down to the perceptions of the viewer as to whether the representation was good enough to access the person thus depicted; which was why paintings of any but the more modern eras could NOT readily be spoken to by modern wizards as they did not perceive a reality within them. His third essay was on the symbol of the sun and the swastika as one of those symbols, and he strayed into the use of it by Odessa's muggle branch in an attempt to invoke the idea of a single leader as the incarnation of the sun itself, an all-powerful figure and how even for muggles the very symbol could invoke strong feelings, positive or negative as it was essentially a runic sigil representing raw power. It may be said that all three of his answers not only strayed into NEWT level but essentially far beyond it. He enjoyed himself.

oOoOo

The potions practical was a return to a long neglected potion; the Draught of Peace. None of the class was dire at potions so nobody panicked; worst in the class were Rose, Sara and Yelisaveta, who were still solid pass students. AHHa, Julian, Granville, Sandalla, Svetlana and Silvina were the class stars and expected to get an 'O' grade'; and they brewed cheerfully, smiling in relief as the silvery vapour arising showed that they had done it properly. Rose Hubble had a darkish grey vapour but at least it had a pewtery sheen; Sara's and Yelisaveta's potions were a trifle sullen and their vapour looked a bit, as Sara said gloomily afterwards, like someone burning Voldemort's old socks.

The written involved questions on Golapott's first two laws and Flo was delighted that with the extra revision after the quiz she was able to cite them perfectly! There were also questions on a number of antidotes to be suggested; and on swelling and shrinking potions. The class felt it had gone as well as might be expected and perhaps better than some of them HAD expected! Severus permitted a brief post mortem and was able to reassure Sara, Yelisaveta and Rose that their theory should have bought them a pass even if their brew was a little er, unpalatable, as he put it.

oOoOo

Transfigurations followed, with questions on switching spells, human transfiguration, cross species switches – here the marauders absently mentioned assimilative correlation by various means – and the conjuration of inanimate objects. Silvina absently wrote about the necessity of using more energy to summon an object than just to produce energy directly which when the examiner glanced at her name on the top of the paper and found 'Snape' was no further surprise.

The practical was predictable; and all the class conjured handkerchiefs of more or less complexity – only George, Sara and Hanna-leena stuck to plain ones – with a variety of lace, coloured printing or embroidery, arms of quidditch teams, or in Silvina's case staves of music of a new humorous piece she composed while doing the conjuring called 'the nose honking song' to be played on cornet and kazoo, which she placed enough energy into to permanence so she might have a record of the music.

Permanency was decidedly post NEWT, never mind post OWL; but as Silvina said, there was no point losing a piece of music because the rest of the test blew it out of her head.

They switched bottles of coloured liquid, the best students switching contents only; vanished a pile of dirt; changed a guinea fowl into a guinea pig which Rose did using Finnish naming magic in German because, as she beamed, the word for Guinea Pig was such fun and so sweet in German, being Meerschweinchen and she didn't need assimilative correlation for so simple a species switch anyhow. The final test was to turn a box tortoise into a box; and if George, Sara and Hanna had rather plain boxes at least none of them had a tendency to wander off nor eat lettuce. Fred's box was a mahogany fold-out writing desk; Julian's a box for keeping music in with expanding pockets within and a brass inlaid clef on the outside; Albert's was ebony inlaid in a complex pattern of peonies with mother of pearl; Svetlana's was a loose interpretation of a box being Russian nesting dolls – remarkably sophisticated and only possible because Svetlana had not got a clue how many magical laws she came close to violating – and Silvina produced a harp box with delicate stringing of box wood and a knotwork pattern on the outside that was a charm to keep the strings in tune, as Silvina informed the examiner. She was no great artist but she had picked up some pattern magic from Randolph. The rest had boxes with some carving or inlay work on them. On the whole it was an impressive showing; and all the children insisted on turning their tortoise back to normal and feeding it as compensation for being inconvenienced; which led to the tortoise – since tortoises will eat while there is food there – exhibiting a perfect digestion and leaving the examiner a smelly offering by the time the Visick twins had gone last.

As Fred, who was still there, said brightly, that was what the vanishing spell was for after all.

oOoOo

For some reason the class was less able, as a whole, at charms, only Albert Jorkins and Vya excelling here. Kate was one of the better students here which pleased her; even if her sole idea of using charms was to use them with enchanting to enchant quidditch equipment. Sara, AHHa and George were about level with Kate as solid 'E' students.

And Granville, who was as poor as his twin Albert was good, was relieved that the quiz had stimulated his memory enough that he was able to write about locomotor charms and quote several incantations and write a brief essay on cheering charms without feeling that he was too out of his depth.

The class as a whole stilled their teacups one at a time in the practical, and only the more daring tried pouring from their levitated wineglass of water. Changing a rat yellow was standard enough not to cause any problems; and eggcups cartwheeled suitably, the training by Madam Parnassus using chocolate frogs being one that was rather more motivational than a lesson without reward of chocolate for industry. Dinner plates too reduced in size suitably; and the class was glad to be shut of the whole business.

oOoOo

Since a large number of the class had been involved in the fight against the fey when Seagh had rescued Yelisaveta, only Yelisaveta herself, Sara, Vya and Hanna-leena needed to take the practical as the rest were deemed to have taken a NEWT level practical. The four managed to deal with boggarts – Yelisaveta only with difficulty as hers was an Odessa officer – and resist jinxes with more or less success. Vya could produce a corporeal patronus; and Sara could manage something that was getting there.

The written was considered by the marauders to be a total gift, since there were four brief essays to be written on certain dark creatures; being the fey, vampires, Kappa and dementors.

AHHa wrote

"The fey per se are not dark creatures but are capricious in nature; there are those among them that are dark creatures, notably dementors and most of the great form spirits which are paradigmatic of the concept of demons and the study of them may legitimately be referred to as demonology." He wrote a NEWT level answer on Genii, Efreeti, demons and other demonic expressions of the fey and returned almost as much detail on the other dark creatures. It may be said that the other marauders wrote hardly any less. The short questions including defining dark creatures and suggesting counters to curses seemed easy enough to most of them and they left the exam room optimistically.

"LOTS nicer than charms" said Fred.

"Can you legitimately call the dark arts nice even in a relative sense?" asked Silvina "Just as a matter of pedantry to remind people that I AM a Snape now."

"How COULD we forget it?" grinned AHHa. "You know what he means, Silvery Snapeling."

Silvina grinned. She knew what he meant.

oOoOo

It was George, AHHa and Albert who excelled at care of domestic magical beasts. Julian and Sara shared Silvina's view that the prettier beasts were nice enough at a distance but that close too the smells were a little too realistic for the muse. Flo was in agreement too; but this was one class at least in which Yelisaveta shone.

The practical was to feed a hippogriff – which the class considered easy enough even if not all of them viewed it as the pleasure Veta did; to check the hooves of a flying horse; and check an owl for chizpurfles. Nobody had any real difficulties.

The written was a lot of questions requiring paragraph-length answers on the feeding of various beasts, from nifflers to griffons and encompassing various flying horses, hounds, owls and snakes in between; the rules on surgery or disillusionment of various beasts requiring licences; and how to deal with a number of minor ailments and pests that might infest a pet. It was considered not too bad even by the unenthusiastic.

oOoOo

The compulsory exams were now behind them; Herbology having been dropped from the compulsory study list once the original Cackle's girls were in the sixth and all children were getting a basic grounding in the first year taster courses. And Severus was also planning on dropping care of domestic beasts as a compulsory course too; unless anyone wished to fly in a quidpolo team when he would require them to study the subject. He considered making Arithmancy compulsory instead; but that too might be unwarranted cruelty to those who really suffered from the subject; it was made plain that Arithmancy was necessary for any higher study and those who were high fliers generally struggled on with the subject even if it was not something that came easily to them. Like Fred Visick and AHHa; and young Svetlana who thought that as Sandalla was not studying Arithmancy she ought to. Sandalla might regret not taking it if she wanted to take Geomancy further; she would require remedial lessons to keep up. That was a thought, Severus considered; having a class of Arithmancy for Geomancers and chanters as a non exam class for the sixth form just to get them through those portions of Arithmancy that became important in their subject without bothering to cover a whole Arithmancy OWL syllabus. He must have a word with Hermione about it. And perhaps an hour once a week too of Ancient Runes for chanters and those studying Comparative Magic.

oOoOo

Ancient Runes was the first elective exam; and there was a large class for it, because Severus had emphasised its use, like Arithmancy, if one wished to take certain subjects to high level. Nine of the sixteen were taking it, not merely the chanters; the Jorkins twins were keen to take metalwork to OWL and would be taking that exam, as would Fred, Flo and George, alongside their NEWTs in two years time. The use of runic inscriptions to increase the efficacy of crafted items did however fill them with ambition to have some idea of how to use runes!

Since Lucius had taken over as examiner for Ancient Runes the exam had either become more fiendish or more interesting depending on whose viewpoint you took. The old format was just to translate three passages from one of a selection of the runic languages the children had studied; the languages themselves had been taught by magical assimilation but the logograms must still be learned by hard work. Lucius preferred to set two shorter passages of translation and a long section of short questions giving a wider range of knowledge testing. Lucius considered it a better test; because if a child was weak on one language under the old system, that more or less blew the exam for them if they were unlucky to get the one language they struggled with. Generally the OWL syllabus covered Latin, Greek, Oghams, Hieroglyphs, Nordic and Saxon Runes and Cuneiform, as well as look at the notation of Herpo the Foul of Parseltongue. Picking three from that list did not cover how well the student had covered other languages on the syllabus.

Accordingly for this exam the students had to translate a rant in ancient Greek about the iniquities of the Egyptians; and a hieroglyph passage by some smooth penned diplomat suggesting how to deal with these hot-headed Greeks. Lucius had written both using original documents as source material to emphasise the amusement value of the two points of view of the same incident, the complaint of Greek sailors over having their captain flogged on the soles of his feet for picking up a cat to use as a ship's cat without realising it was considered a heinous sacrilege to the Egyptians.

The short questions dealt, some of them, with short translations of brief passages in other languages; questions on the significance of the N-rune to the Nordic people; and a question on the ambiguous nature of the infamous Latin message sent by Queen Isabella to the jailors of Edward the Second. Silvina certainly enjoyed this one, being interested in words in general; and the fact that generally Latin gives a clear enough meaning, whatever order the words are in, because of the endings to the words; but that the placement of the word 'Not' was crucial to the way the relatively uneducated jailors read the message, so that they definitely saw 'fear not to kill the king, it is good' rather than – as the queen was to argue that she had meant – 'Fear to kill the king, it is NOT good'.

Only Sandalla struggled with the exam; she studied Ancient Runes as an accompaniment to History, which was a crucial subject for someone who anticipated being a ruling princess one day.

Arithmancy was being taken by ten students; more than sometimes were to be found taking it in Hogwarts whose classes were at least twice as big as Prince Peak's. Severus was very pleased with the hard work of those who struggled and yet still persevered.

The usual questions on optimal marriage partners using numerology opened the exam; and a tricky little calculation followed, to calculate, given the variables, the amount of energy required to open a given portion of wizarding space. Most members of the MSHG considered the wizarding measure of energy, Man-Hours Running, the MHR, to be a little spurious; it designated the output of magical energy in comparison to how tired a man would be after running for an hour, which as the MSHG had debated more than once was really rather subjective, especially for those who ran daily to increase their stamina. Hermione, who also considered it a little spurious, had told her students just to look upon the ruddy measurement as an arbitrary one and never mind the original meaning or else think of it as Ministry Hours Running which as everyone knew was a bunch of idiots expending a lot of energy running around and getting nowhere. If was any comfort, Hermione said, it was about 750 Joules which was a muggle measurement with a lot more precision, the Joule being the amount of energy required to lift – by any means, muscular or otherwise – one kilogram one metre. And if she had her way there would be more standardisation between magical and muggle measurements save in such things that had magical significance like the magical mile.

There were grins over the Ministry Hours Running as the students fell to calculating the answer with varying degrees of precision– Flo solved it to four decimal places, and her twin rounded to the nearest half – and the students heaved a sigh of relief that the next question was merely a simple piece of Waffling Logic being no more than a reprise of the question posed by the caryatids of the last Triwizard, that 'if one of us always tells the truth and the other always lies, how do you determine the correct path to take' . Following that were a few questions on prime numbers including finding three prime numbers that summed to make the prime number 23; a question considered to have significance since Lilith Snape's research into the significance of 23, prime numbers attaining more significance since the teaching of goblin metalwork demonstrated the importance laid upon them by goblins. Fred declared the exam 'not too horrible' and Silvina and Flo declared that they had enjoyed it.

oOoOo

Comparative Magic was the province of Flo, AHHa, and Silvina. Silvina had no very high hopes of a good grade but she felt it went rather well with Ancient Runes which she took seriously as well as being a contextual study for music.

The form of the exam had become set that one picked one essay out of three offered and completed too a paper of short questions. The essay choices were 'Pick three types of shapeshifter and discuss them in context of their cultural setting'; 'Compare and contrast the use of music in three different cultures [percussion may be included]'; and 'reference three different magical traditions with comparisons of the importance of written and spoken word.'

Silvina almost cheered out loud. There were two essays she considered easy; especially the second on the list. She settled down to write too much about the musical traditions of the Irish who used bodhran and harp primarily for magical effects, as learned from the Seelie Court of fey; the use of the gong in Japan to control and exclude fey and other spirits; and the tradition of magical pipes and flutes of the Germanic people probably drawn from the fey of the region. She had to hurry a bit to complete all the short questions; but felt that on the whole she had surpassed herself and was hopeful of a better grade than the mere pass she had been hoping for.

oOoOo

Nobody was taking Divination this year; those who saw it as a soft option were mostly a matter of the past since the introduction of an entrance exam, and the increased expectations of even those who had, as this year had done, entered without an exam. This being so the next exam was Enchanting; the province of Fred, George and Granville.

There was a short essay question on why it was necessary to choose appropriate materials to which to tie an enchantment; Fred absently mentioned Assimilative Correlation by Association, but spoiled the effect by becoming a little fuzzy in his argument later in the essay. George wrote a tighter essay but without NEWT level references; and Granville woffled rather. There were questions on wand woods and cores; and one on why dedicated wands had no core. The answer to that of course was that a wand and its core combined focused the will of the owner and could thus perform any spell the caster knew; whereas a dedicated wand was enchanted to produce one effect only and might as well, argued Fred, be a dedicated screwdriver or glove or any other random object, the choice of a wand being purely traditional. With a few more questions on general enchantments the written was over.

The practical involved the enchantment of three common items; a fire-lighting wand, self-warming slippers and a self-inking pen. Granville's pen was prone to drop blots and his slippers were rather TOO warm for comfort; but otherwise they managed well enough.

oOoOo

Geomancy followed for Fred; it was the other Jorkins who was taking this, Albert; and too Sandalla. It was for Geomancy that Fred had persevered with Arithmancy, and felt it worth while.

The exam presented a map of Britain for the candidate to draw in the principal ley lines; and there were questions on the recognition of geomantic symbols, on unplottability, and on the expected advantages of travelling by ley line and the use of the four-point spell to find North and its variants to find the nearest ley line or node points.

The practical was a standard one; the candidates were taken, together with their brooms, to an unknown location from which they had to find their way back using ley lines to increase flying speed. Sandalla, who could feel ley lines, had an advantage here; the boys had to use the incantation _point-me leyline_ to pick up a seven-fold speed increase.

oOoOo

Herbology was being taken by Granville, Silvina – for potioneering – Sara, Hanna and Vya.

Sara was bitten by her fanged geranium but managed to gather bubotubers without mishap; and none of them were more than minimally bruised by bouncing bulbs. The written consisted of a lot of short questions, to Sara's relief; she had not enjoyed Herbology as much as she had expected to when she signed up for it as an elective. In Sara's opinion you could pick up more marks on short questions by getting at least a half mark here and there on most of them for knowing something rather than having to stare at a sheet of paper to write an essay. Writing essays were NOT Sara's forte; and dropped her grades across the board accordingly. She would have been amazed to know that Silvina considered essays better than short questions because you could so easily pick up bonus marks for making a good point.

The questions covered listing self motile plants known to the candidates, brief discussions on the use and over use of fertiliser, the difference between devil's snare and flitterbloom, and pruning various woody plants. Sara felt she had done enough to pass; Silvina felt she had not disgraced herself; and Granville declared happily that it had been a lovely exam.

oOoOo

Sandalla, Svetlana and Hanna were the only ones taking History. For the two princesses it was more or less mandatory out of duty; Hanna was just interested.

The exam consisted of two papers, an essay paper from which one essay out of three was chosen; and a paper of short questions. The essay choices were 'discuss the relationship enjoyed between muggle alchemists and wizards before the statute of secrecy of 1692'; 'the twentieth century has been called the age of dictators; discuss'; and 'discuss how blood magic in the form of sacrifice in the ancient world tainted the view of blood magic in the modern world'. Svetlana raised an eyebrow at the last, considering it a near NEWT question; and chose the question on the age of dictators. Sandalla chose the question on blood magic and proceeded to return a NEWT level answer on it with much reference to Professor Snape's book 'Blood magic, love magic'. Hanna fell back on the question about dictators, which was largely about Grindelwald and Voldemort when all was said and done.

The short paper covered the whole period from antiquity to the modern era with paragraph answers required on such disparate subjects as the Roman suppression of local traditions to the use of muggles by Gellert Grindelwald.

oOoOO

None of the students were to be taking metalwork this year; Lydia had decreed that though some might have been able to catch up in the single year, her successor teacher Professor Chang might see about letting them enter in their lower sixth year instead of alongside their NEWTs to give an option of taking NEWT; but that she felt that they needed at least another year's preparation.

Muggle studies was the next exam therefore, and was only being taken by two candidates, the Zorn twins. As a muggle who had achieved magic only through the blood pact with her double and now twin, Sandalla, Svetlana excelled here; and Sandalla considered keeping up with what muggles knew, felt and wanted was important from an ambassadorial point of view. Svetlana was seriously considering taking the study to NEWT in order to teach in the magical country of Zorn.

The exam was one consisting of four shortish essays chosen from six titles suggested; the titles were 'muggles prefer not to know in order to avoid inferiority complexes; discuss'; 'the importance of electricity to muggles is equivalent to that of charms to wizards; discuss'; 'at the divergence of the muggle and magical worlds, science took the place of the mystical for muggles; discuss'; 'consider how tales of flying magical objects influenced the muggle drive to invent technological flying machines'; 'does the deep seated desire of some muggles to know influence their fiction?' and 'consider why muggles might have a drive to communicate constantly over increasing distances'.

Sandalla discarded the second and the final essays in the list; Svetlana discarded the first and third. Both wrote steadily and well; and Svetlana, bringing a muggle's views to the subject made some very cogent points, enjoying particularly the essay on muggle fiction, and hardly less enjoying writing about telegraph, telephone, wireless, television and the internet, and the prevalence of mobile phones; pointing out that technological gadgets that reached further and did more were the muggle equivalent in some respects to such gimmicks as self-stirring cauldrons; but that too muggles felt a need to control their environment and being able to communicate with large portions of it was a form of self determination, because they knew subconsciously that there was more out there than they could actually perceive or understand.

The final exam was another new one; Music in Magic. And for want of any other sufficiently qualified English musicians who had studied the subject who were NOT actually teaching, the Examinations Board had, with some qualms, picked the Broomstick Boys as examiners.

The entrants were Julian, Silvina and Sara; and Terence Goodchild, who planned to take the NEWT after the extra year he had been offered free by Severus to provide a music teacher in a new school.

The practical consisted of studying a chant and duplicating its effect with music or drumming; playing a tune of irresistible dance while the music continued; and playing a magical lullaby to send a baby to sleep. Crys and Nils borrowed David Snape, Jade Nuffield and Severein Schiff for the three candidates; and accepted sung lullabies as being as valid as played ones.

The candidates all performed well above the designated par.

The written exam contained a section that gave portions of melodies with the effect expected written by them with the instruction to add counterpoint to enhance the effect; another section with portions of scores asking what effect this tune would have; and a section of paragraph answers on such things as matching appropriate instruments to particular effects, enchanting instruments to play, the hypnotic qualities of the song or whistling of various fey creatures and the design of tunes to create magical patterns. It may be said that Silvina became rather arithmantic over this question.

The three declared it easier than they had feared and were told dryly by Godfrey that as they had been involved in helping to design NEWT level music it jolly well should have been.

And that was the exams over!

oOoOo

Ordinary lessons continued for the non exam students; and the metalwork students in the fifth elected to put in time on their two show pieces in the hopes of talking Professor Chang into letting them take their OWL next year. Lydia was fairly certain Ming would be flexible; and the group had worked hard enough to have probably scraped a pass if she had let them do more on their exam pieces, but she had felt it would be detrimental to their other exams as well as not giving a true overview of their abilities. She intended telling Ming that he could stray into some NEWT work with the group over the next year alongside bringing them up to speed for their OWL; and set the youngsters further reading for the holidays as an option if they cared to take it.

She thought it was an option they would all take.

oOoOo

The last event of term was a round Robin quiddpolo match between the first, second and third teams and a scratch staff team with Lydia as chaser, and Byron, Erich, Dimsie, Hermione, Viktor and Krait as her team. Few of the staff had ever ridden; Byron, Dimsie and Erich had all had lessons, Lydia loved riding, Krait had a natural Malfoy flair and Viktor was determined. The games were to be declared after an hour for the sake of the horses and would be played over two days; and it has to be said that the second team – named for courtesy to their elders and the third team only so named at the request of its members – creamed all opposition. It was good fun; and a grand way to celebrate an extra sport added to the school's repertoire.

oOoOo

And then term was drawing to an end; and there was to be the now traditional moonlight feast, after an afternoon's resting, as being more pleasant than the heat of midsummer under the harsh mountain sun.

Severus had asked the second years to cut fantastic shapes for shadow lanterns as shadow puppetry was very much a class hobby; and the results had been excellent. Birds and flowers and intricate patterns were thrown as shadows over the feast that was a traditional hog roast with the addition of local made bread and cheeses and goat's milk in abundance as an alternative to pumpkin juice and butterbeer. And Severus rose.

"It's been a good year; and one without any alarums to speak of so we should be glad of that; but we should also be aware that the children of Durmstrang HAVE had a few interruptions from dark wizards."

"It's their turn!" called out the Lowther twins. Severus gave a thin smile.

"It may very well be their turn, but we have to remember that dark wizardry is NOT fair and to maintain what an old friend of mine would call Constant Vigilance; let us not get complaisant. Though I may say the staff is unlikely to get too complaisant as we had a little matter of a fey attack in the Yule holidays; nothing to work up a sweat over."

"Weel yon's a touch o' litotes" murmured Seagh, who had arrived for the end of term and had his arm round Silvina.

"It was nothing to break into a sweat over" said Severus severely "Having expected it and prepared in advance. However, that's by the by; I hope that you have enjoyed a relatively peaceful year and that those of you who are leaving us will take fond memories of school with you. And that the rest of you have happy holidays and return refreshed in September."

There were cheers; and Irmi rose.

"Those of us who are leaving would like to say thank you, sir, to you and all the staff for giving us schooldays happy enough to give us a solid foundation for the rest of our lives" she said. "None of us will ever forget our time in Prince Peak; and most of us will, I'm sure, view the little problems caused by Odessa as merely a part of life's rich tapestry. Of the eight of us, the excellent time we have had has instilled a desire in at least half of us to teach, even if we may some of us take some time doing other things first, though I guess Emily's coaching is but another form of teaching. And Evangeline wishes to take a year teaching and then enter the ministry; so in a couple of years time the English ministry of education better start improving, Evvy, that's all I can say!"

Evangeline grinned and waved her glass of butterbeer self deprecatingly in the air. Irmi curtseyed; and the whole of the upper sixth rose as a body to bow and curtsey to Severus.

He cleared his throat, much moved.

"I certainly wish you all much success in whatever your chosen career may be" he said softly "Now before we get maudlin, let's give three cheers for the school and let the dancing commence!"

The school gave a rousing cheer; and danced with enthusiasm to the playing of the Broomstick Boys and the Goodchild brothers well into the early hours; and several juniors had to be put to bed in their clothes for falling asleep where they sat.

It had been a good year; and would have been a better one without an expulsion to mar it. But sometimes that too was just part of life's rich tapestry.

7


End file.
